President Dwight Eisenhower

In these series of posts, I will discuss the federal aid to education starting with the National Defense Education Act, 1958 (NDEA) which was passed during the tenure of President Dwight Eisenhower and culminating with the No Child Left Behind Act, 2001 (NCLB). This Act was passed during the tenure of President George W. Bush.

This first post will discuss the actions taken by President Eisenhower in his efforts to involve the federal government in national education.

During the period 1958 to 2002, many pieces of legislation were enacted which furthered federal involvement in education. This started with the NDEA and culminated with the NCLB While the NDEA targeted mainly students in higher education, NCLB focused on all students. This act demanded accountability by everyone involved in the education process.

NDEA was based on inputs while NCLB was based on outputs. Both these two pieces of legislation broke new ground. NDEA broke new ground by allocating substantial federal funds to education. It, however, allowed states and local authorities to determine their programs.

NCLB on the other hand broke new ground by laying down conditions and policies for states and local authorities to follow. The NCLB, therefore, was by far more stringent than the NDEA.

After legislating the NDEA, President Eisenhower tried unsuccessfully throughout his administration to introduce several measures dealing with federal aid to education which were requested by many local education authorities.

These local authorities had requested federal aid to assist them with the school

construction which had become necessary to meet the needs of the new baby boom. To improve

the delivery of education assistance, President Eisenhower created a new cabinet-level

1

department, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) to oversee the work of the federal office of education which had been set up in 1867.1

Education had become a pressing need as the demand for elementary school places had risen sharply after the war. However, all of President Eisenhower’s efforts to alleviate the situation met with severe opposition.

Many sources have put forward several reasons which they believe prevented President Eisenhower from successfully getting his legislation passed. The first was the fear that federal aid might lead to federal control of schools. The second was that federal aid might flow to religious or parochial schools, something that was offensive to those who adhered to the principle of the separation of church and state.

Along with other historians, Carl Kaestle, believed that the major obstacles to federal aid was what they termed the three “Rs”, Race (the threat that federal aid would be coupled with demands for racial desegregation), Religion (aid to parochial schools), and Reds (anti- centralization arguments, including anti-communism).

Kaestle further suggested, however, that the work of scholars who have examined the failure of federal aid to education indicate that there were many more obstacles to federal aid. One such obstacle which was much less obvious, was the Rules Committee of the House of Representatives.

All the various reasons given above may be summed up as the three original arguments against the federal role as advanced by Kaestle.2 The first was that it was unconstitutional. The reasoning was that according to the constitution all the powers that were not specifically given to the Federal Government resided with the states.3 Second, it was felt that local schooling was best left to local decision-makers.

Third, it was believed that federal intervention was not necessary because local authorities, with help from their states, could provide proper education for their children. They felt that they were in the best position to determine what was best for their children.

To further complicate matters for President Eisenhower each of his federal aid to education proposals was amended by Representative Adam Clayton Powell (D-N.Y.). Powell attached a desegregation rider each time, knowing full well that the Southern Democrats, who controlled Congress at that time, were totally opposed to desegregation and would ensure the rejection of any such bill.4

However, the shock of Sputnik and the subsequent passing of the NDEA caused the controversy over federal aid to segregated schools to subside somewhat. Also significant was that with NDEA, grants flowed freely to segregated schools. Such was the urgency of the moment that the major issue which had foiled earlier bills was now sidelined.5

In the period immediately after World War II and up to the launch of Sputnik there appears to be a common theme running through the education history of the United States — that is, the US had gone soft on education and there was a lack of rigor in mathematics education. Hence the country was setting itself up for shortages in areas that were essential to national security.6 The consensus of education historians was that the public believed that the Soviet

Union had overtaken the United States in the space race and that did not auger well for the future security of this country.

At this time there was much debate as to the extent of federal involvement in education. It was felt by some that state and local authorities were quite competent to develop and provide the training that the students needed. Others believed that the curriculum was too soft, and the federal government should intervene to ensure that the nation’s youth were educated so that they could help to maintain the nation’s military superiority. Kliebard7 states that people like Arthur Bestor and Admiral Hyman Rickover felt that education fell under the umbrella of national policy especially in time of war, “cold or otherwise,” and was therefore open to federal assistance.8 In October 1957 the Russians helped temporarily to settle the debate.

It would seem from all appearances that NDEA was hastily drawn up and enacted in response to Sputnik, and indeed some historians seem to suggest just that. However, a bill like NDEA had been incubating since the mid-fifties,9 but there is no doubt that public sentiment over Sputnik tipped the scales in favor of passing such an important bill.

NDEA was an important precedent as it opened the door to federal aid for education.10 It was also important because, according to another historian, Patrick McGuinn,11 historically schooling has been a very decentralized and locally run affair; hence it was a political precedent and a “psychological breakthrough for the advocates of federal aid to education.”12

The major aim of the NDEA was to shore up the nation’s educational and research facilities. Hence it focused on technical development and improvements in the students’ academic levels, with reference to mathematics, science, and foreign languages. President Eisenhower felt that it was important that America develop its technological might so that it could outdo its Communist foe.

As a result, an unprecedented amount of federal funds was allocated to support this initiative. Many schools had not sought funding for these areas—they were more concerned with aid for school construction; but they were nevertheless happy to avail themselves of the opportunity to be able to purchase teaching material from federal funds.13

In the next post I will examine the successes and failures of President John Kennedy in his attempts to further involve the federal government in national education.

1. The Office of Education was created in 1867 to collect statistics on education.

2. Kaestle, Federal Aid to Education Since World War II, 2001, 16