Federal Support of Public Education

Abstract

A study of the history of federal participation in education in the United States cannot fail to convince anyone who approaches the subject with an impartial attitude that there are major difficulties, even major hazards, in the attempt to bring into successful cooperation the states and the central government. The states seem to be left by the Constitution of the United States with full responsibility for education. The central government seems to be limited to those types of participation which can be entered into only through grants of land or money. Any grant which the federal government makes to public education must be administered by the state or by some agency controlled by the state. The possibilities of incoordination are numerous. The federal grant may itself be unwise. State administration may be faulty. Above all, friction may arise because of the incompatibility of federal purposes and influences with the purposes of a given state system of education. It is important that we consider some of the historical examples of federal participation in education. The first federal support of schools was through the well-known grants of land for the maintenance of common schools made to the states carved out of the North-