DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, HOUSE OF REFRESENTATIVES, The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Frederick W. Dallinger presiding. Present: Messrs. Dallinger (chairman), Reed, Robsion, Holaday, Fleetwood, Welsh, Bacon, Fenn, Lowrey, Tucker, Doughton, Hastings, Moore, Allen, and Black. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. The hearing to-day will be on the bill H. R. 3923, "A bill to create a department of education, to authorize appropriations for the conduct of said department, to authorize the appropriation of money to encourage the States in the promotion and support of education, and for other purposes." I will ask Miss Williams, the field secretary of the National Education Association, to open the hearing. I understand she is going to have charge of it for the advocates of the bill. STATEMENT OF MISS CHARL 0. WILLIAMS, FIELD SECRETARY NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Miss WILLIAMS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee we who are here supporting the Sterling-Reed bill wish to record our very sincere appreciation of the action of the committee in giving us this hearing before we go to Chicago to the midwinter annual meeting of the educators of the Nation. We believe that the message that we can carry to them of the interest which has been shown, both in the Senate and in the House, will be extremely heartening to them. I am not going to take up time this morning for myself, because I am here in Washington all of the time, and there are other busy men and women who have left their positions to come down and express their deep convictions regarding this great national measure and their abiding faith in the outcome; so I am going to give all of the time to them. I wish to ask in the beginning,, that the House bill 3923 be printed. in the record at this time, and that the analysis of this bill may follow the bill in the record. (The bill and the analysis thereof referred to, are here printed in the record as follows:) [H. R. 3923, Sixty-eighth Congress, first session] A BILL To create a department od education, to authorize appropriations for the conduct of said department, to authorize the appropriation of money to encourage the States in the promotion and support of education, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby created an executive department in the Government to be called the department of education, with a secretary of education, who shall be the head thereof, to be appointed by the President 1 by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and who shall receive a salary of $12,000 per annum, and whose tenure of office shall be the same as that of the heads of other executive departments; and section 158 of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended to include such department, and the provisions of Title IV of the Revised Statutes, including all amendments thereto are hereby made applicable to said department. The secretary of education shall cause a seal of office to be made for such department of such device as the President shall approve, and judicial notice shall be taken of said seal. SEC. 2. That there shall be in said department an assistant secretary of education, to be appointed by the President, who shall receive a salary to be determined by Congress. He shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by the secretary or required by law. There shall also be one chief clerk and a disbursing clerk and such chiefs of bureaus and clerical assistants as may from time to time be authorized by Congress. SEC. 3. That there is hereby transferred to the department of education the Bureau of Education, and such offices, bureaus, divisions, boards, or branches of the Government, connected with or attached to any of the executive departments or organized independently of any department, as Congress may determine should be administered by the department of education, and all such offices, bureaus, divisions, boards, or branches of the Government so transferred by act of Congress shall thereafter be administered by the department of education, as hereinafter provided. All officers, clerks, and employees employed in or by any office, bureau, division, board, or branch of the Government, transferred in accordance with the provisions of this act to the department of education, shall each and all be transferred to said department of education at their existing grades and salaries, except where otherwise provided in this act; and the office records and papers on file pertaining exclusively to the business of any such office, bureau, division, board, or branch of the Government so transferred, together with the furniture and equipment thereof, shall be transferred to said department. SEC. 4. That the secretary of education shall have charge, in the buildings or premises occupied by or assigned to the department of education, of the library, furniture, fixtures, records, and other property used therein or pertaining thereto, and may expend for rental of appropriate quarters for the accommodation of the department of education within the District of Columbia, and for the library, furniture, equipment, and all other incidental expenses, such sums as Congress may provide from time to time. All power and authority conferred by law upon the head of any executive department, or upon any administrative board, over any officer, office, bureau, division, board, or branch of the Government, transferred in accordance with the provisions of this act to the department of education, shall, after such transfer, be vested in the secretary of education, and all business arising therefrom or pertaining thereto, and all duties performed in connection therewith, shall thereafter be administered by the department of education. All laws prescribing the work and defining the duties and powers of the several offices, bureaus, divisions, boards, or branches of the Government, transferred in accordance with the provisions of this act to the department of education, shall, in so far as the same are not in conflict with the provisions of this act, remain in full force and effect and be administered by the secretary of education, to whom is hereby granted authority to reorganize the work of any and all of the said offices, bureaus, divisions, boards, or branches of the Government so transferred in such way as will in his judgment best accomplish the purposes of this act. SEC. 5. That the department of education shall conduct studies and investigations in the field of education and report thereon. Research shall be undertaken in (a) illiteracy; (b) immigrant education; (c) public-school education, and especially rural education; (d) physical education, including health education, recreation, and sanitation; (e) preparation and supply of competent teachers for the public schools; (f) higher education; and in such other fields as, in the judgment of the secretary of education, may require attention and study. In order to carry out the provisions of this section, the secretary of education is authorized, in the same manner as provided for appointments in other departments, to make appointments, or recommendations of appointments, of educational attachés to foreign embassies, and of such investigators and representatives as may be needed, subject to the appropriations that have been made or may hereafter be made to any office, bureau, division, board, or branch of the Government transferred in accordance with the provisions of this act to the department of education; and where appropriations have not been made therefor the appropriation provided in section 6 of this act shall be made available. SEC. 6. That for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1925, and annually thereafter, the sum of $500,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the department of education, for the purpose of paying salaries and conducting studies and investigations, and paying all incidental and traveling expenses and rent where necessary, and for the purpose of enabling the department of education to carry out the provisions of this act. And all appropriations which have been made and which may hereafter be made to any office, bureau, division, board, or branch of the Government, transferred in accordance with the provisions of this act to the department of education, are hereby continued in full force and effect, and shall be administered by the secretary of education in such manner as is prescribed by law. SEC. 7. In order to encourage the States to remove illiteracy $7,500,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is authorized to be appropriated annually for the instruction of illiterates fourteen years of age and over. Said sum shall be apportioned to the States which qualify under the provisions of this act, in the proportions which their respective illiterate populations fourteen years of age and over, not including foreign-born illiterates, bear to such total illiterate population of the United States, not including outlying possessions, according to the last preceding census of the United States. All funds apportioned to a State for the removal of illiteracy shall be distributed and administered in accordance with the laws of said State in like manner as the funds provided by State and local authorities for the same purpose, and the State and local educational authorities of said State shall determine the courses of study, plans, and methods for carrying out the purposes of this section within said State in accordance with the laws thereof. SEC. 8. That in order to encourage the States in the Americanization of immigrants $7,500,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is authorized to be appropriated annually to teach immigrants fourteen years of age and over to speak and read the English language and to understand and appreciate the Government of the United States and the duties of citizenship. The said sum shall be apportioned to the States which qualify under the provisions of this act in the proportions which their respective foreign-born populations bear to the total foreign-born population of the United States, not including outlying possessions, according to the last preceding census of the United States. All funds apportioned to a State for the Americanization of immigrants shall be distributed and administered in accordance with the laws of said State in like manner as the funds provided by State and local authorities for the same purpose, and the State and local educational authorities of said State shall determine the courses of study, plans, and methods for carrying out the purposes of this section within said State in accordance with the laws thereof. SEC. 9. That in order to encourage the States to equalize educational opportunities $50,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary is authorized to be appropriated annually to be used in public elementary and secondary schools for the partial payment of teacher's salaries, for providing better instruction and extended school terms especially in rural schools and schools in sparsely settled localities, for the extension and adaptation of public libraries for educational purposes, and otherwise providing equally good educational opportunities for the children of the several States. The said sum shall be apportioned to the States which qualify under the provisions of this act one-half in the proportions which the number of children between the ages of six and twenty-one of the respective States bears to the total number of such children in the United States, and one-half in the proportions which the number of public-school teachers employed in teaching positions in the respective States bears to the total number of publicschool teachers so employed in the United States, not including outlying possessions, said apportionment to be based upon statistics collected annually by the department of education. All funds apportioned to a State to equalize educational opportunities shall be distributed and administered in accordance with the laws of said State in like manner as the funds provided by State and local authorities for the same purpose, and the State and local educational authorities of said State shall determine the courses of study, plans and methods for carrying out the purposes of this section within said State in accordance with the laws thereof: Provided, however, That the apportionments authorized by this section shall be made only to such States as by law provide: (a) A legal school term of at least twenty-four weeks in each year for the benefit of all |