Conflicting Views on Federal Aid

Abstract

Department of Superintendence adopted at their conventions in 1936 and the activities of these organizations in support of federal aid for schools are evidence that the leadership of these influential educational associations is largely favorable to this cause. The reports of the National Advisory Committee on Education in 1931' and the National Conference on the Financing of Education in 1933,2 to mention only two of a number of nationally representative agencies which have been specifically concerned with federal relations to education, are emphatic in their advocacy of federal participation in the support of state school systems. It is unnecessary to refer to the pronouncements of the numerous state and regional groups which support the demands of the schools for substantial contributions from the resources of the federal government. The representative character of the agencies designated leaves no doubt of the existence of a widespread favorable attitude on this question among the leaders in the profession. It is not to be assumed, however, that the several persons supporting the recommendations of a committee or the resolutions of an association favorable to federal aid are unanimously in accord with the specific stipulations of such recommendations or resolutions. In general, the action of any organized group represents a compromise or an adjustment of more or less divergent views on the part even of those who have formulated the proposal. Moreover, with the practical problems involved in securing legislation providing for 'National Advisory Committee on Education, Federal Relations to Education, Part I. Washington: National Advisory Committee on Education.