United States Bureau of Education

“ Librarians should make application to their congressmen for the Record at the beginning of each session of Congress, as new mailing lists are made out at that time.
The Annual Reports of the Bureau of Education are devoted to statistics concerning the educational system of the United States. There are also discussions and papers on important educational movements in other countries. The law provides for an edition of 35,000 copies, 20,000 of which are distributed by the Bureau. ”

“ By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) , the Department of Education Appropriations Act, 2000 (as contained in Public Law 106-113) , and in order to take actions to improve low-performing schools, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1.⁠ Policy.
Since 1993, this Administration has sought to raise standards for students and to increase accountability in public education while investing more resources in elementary and secondary schools. ”

“ The design of the School is professional—i.e., only those students are admitted who intend to teach, but a large portion of the various courses is devoted to academic work. The school is directly under the control of the State Board of Education, which grants all certificates, diplomas and degrees upon recommendation of the Faculty. ”

“ It will be the duty of the Commission to promote and extend, and, as they find occasion, to improve the system of education already inaugurated by the military authorities. In doing this they should regard as of first importance the extension of a system of primary education which shall be free to all, and which shall tend to fit the people for the duties of citizenship and for the ordinary avocations of a civilized community. ”

“ A practising school, organized as a part of the University, and having as its principal one of the University Faculty, might, besides affording such a practising ground for secondary teachers, be the means of supplying tested facts to the teaching world in general, and would greatly help the University Department to fulfil its true function—that of stimulating teachers and unifying education in the State. ”

“ Since then, this Congress--across party lines--and the American people have responded, in the most important year for education in a generation-- expanding public school choice, opening the way to 3,000 charter schools, working to connect every classroom in the country to the information superhighway, committing to expand Head Start to a million children, launching America Reads, sending literally thousands of college students into our elementary schools to make sure all our 8-year-olds can read. ”

“ As used in this order:
(a) ‘‘agency’’ means an executive agency as defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code, other than the Government Accountability Office; and (b) ‘‘adult education’’ means teaching or instruction below the postsecondary level, for individuals who are 16 years of age or older, designed to provide: (i) mastery of basic education skills needed to function effectively in society; (ii) a secondary school diploma or its equivalent; or (iii) the ability to speak, read, or write the English language. Sec. 3. Establishment of Interagency Adult Education Working Group. ”

“ But even though it is not desirable to allow the Federal government to take over the chief educational powers of the state, it is believed by many that some national agency might render valuable service in co÷rdinating the educational programs of the several states. At present many educators feel that the Federal government should insist upon minimum standards in education in the various states of the Union. ”

“ The limitations of the Constitution left education as a State interest, to be worked out by each commonwealth as it should think best. There had always been a general desire among teachers for some national organization, and at last, after the Civil War, Congress established a department, and then later made a Bureau of Education in the Department of the Interior. ”

“ Now, to meet the needs of the generations to come, we have established a Department of Education to express our national commitment to education, to promote equal educational opportunity, to assist local authorities in their efforts to improve our schools, and to administer Federal education programs more efficiently. ”

“ As I have said before, we must prepare our children for the 21st century by providing them with the best education in the world. To help meet this goal, I have sent the Congress a comprehensive agenda for strengthening our public schools, which enroll almost 90 percent of our students. ”

“ It is a group of State school systems, having in the aggregate a certain National character. We cannot insist too strongly that education is primarily a concern of the States. This group of State school systems represents a combination of public and private agencies, for our State institutions are supplemented by many institutions privately supported and controlled. It represents an extraordinary unity as between elementary education and the higher education, as between the democracy of the lower schools and the science of the universities. ”

“ The role of the Federal Government is to protect and preserve State and local control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, and personnel of educational institutions, schools, and school systems. ”

“ Students will be appointed to the Normal Schools by the Superintendent, upon the recommendation of superintendents and school commissioners. These officers will be relied upon to properly represent to possible candidates the needs of the public schools for well-qualified teachers, and the necessity of professional and technical training on the part of all who intend to teach. No students can be admitted who have not already acquired a substantial elementary education. ”

“ Among the various educational institutions of the United States to-day, the one which, as it seems to me, is attracting the most intelligent attention on the part of our educational thinkers, and the one upon the right solution of whose problems depends, in a high degree, the success of our entire educational system, is the institution for the education of teachers. ”

“ It may be stated without reservation that the executive committee of the society are unanimously of the belief that the best way to administer the new provisions for industrial education rapidly being enacted into laws in various states is by a state board of education which has all forms of education under its control. ”

“ Very recently, there was a report issued on education, which stated something on the order of people in the United States are receiving 10% more of a certain level of education, than they were a decade before. ”

“ Our children come first, and that's why I established a bipartisan National Commission on Excellence in Education, to help us chart a commonsense course for better education. And already, communities are implementing the Commission's recommendations. Schools are reporting progress in math and reading skills. But we must do more to restore discipline to schools; and we must encourage the teaching of new basics, reward teachers of merit, enforce tougher standards, and put our parents back in charge. ”

“ If the standard for admission to the Normal Schools be raised, as the Board of Education now contemplates, they will be relieved of a large amount of academical work now required, and of many candidates whose limited knowledge and capacity for acquiring it make them improper subjects for professional training. ”

“ As a part of our total public works program, consideration should be given to the need for providing adequate buildings for schools and other educational institutions. In view of current arrears in the construction of educational facilities, I believe that legislation to authorize grants for educational facilities, to be matched by similar expenditures by State and local authorities, should receive the favorable consideration of the Congress.
The Federal Government has not sought, and will not seek, to dominate education in the States. ”

“ There are some 60 education programs that the federal government runs that will be consolidated into five, streamlining it, more flexibility for the states to carry out the accountability and reforms in education. ”

“ I urge the Congress to meet that obligation and to send me instead the legislation I have proposed to reduce class size; improve the quality of teaching; modernize our schools; end social promotions; raise academic standards ”

“ We need the creation of a strong Federal Department of Education of cabinet rank, with ample means and strong powers to be the guiding genius of all our state and local departments of education, with greater attention paid to a more thorough and concrete training in civics, in moral and ethical education, in addition to the other well recognized branches in public school education. It should have such powers also as will enable it to see that every child is in school up to a certain age, or until all the fundamentals of a prescribed standard of American education are acquired. ”

“ Regulations often are quite definite regarding the qualifications of teachers in rural and elementary schools, with no statement or with no definitely named qualifications for high school teachers. In some states the superintendent of public instruction or some other official prescribes the subjects in which the examination is held. The tendency of recent legislation has been to accept graduation from reputable colleges or universities giving training in methods of teaching, in lieu of examination. ”

“ Preschool education--Head Start--is already here to stay and, I think, so are the Federal programs that tonight are keeping more than a million and a half of the cream of our young people in the colleges and the universities of this country. ”

“ A course of study in a high school or academy of not less than three years approved by the commissioner of education or from some institution of learning of equal or higher rank approved by the same authority, and who subsequently to the completion of such course has not graduated from a school for the professional training of teachers having a course of not less than two years approved by the commissioner of education or its equivalent. ”

“ By 1920 there were some four hundred colleges in the United States giving serious courses on educational history and procedure and administration, many of them maintaining large and important professional Schools of Education for the more scientific study of the subject, and for the training of leaders for the service of the nation's schools. ”

“ The boards of education and trustees of the several cities and school districts of the state shall require instruction to be given in such courses, by the teachers employed in the schools therein. All pupils attending such schools, over the age of eight years, shall attend upon such instruction. ”

“ Thanks to the actions of this Congress last year, we will soon have, for the very first time, a voluntary national test based on national standards in fourth grade reading and eighth grade math.
Parents have a right to know whether their children are mastering the basics. And every parent already knows the key; good teachers and small classes.
Tonight, I propose the first ever national effort to reduce class size in the early grades. My balanced budget will help to hire a hundred thousand new teachers who have passed the state competency tests. ”

“ We must reward excellence and cut through bureaucracy. We must help schools that need help the most. We must give choice to parents, students, teachers, and principals; and we must hold all concerned accountable. In education, we cannot tolerate mediocrity. ”

“ Many of the states also offer inducements to the cities, towns and districts to exceed the prescribed minimum of efficiency. Through the steady exercise of state supervision the school buildings have improved, the standard for entrance upon the work of teaching has been raised, the programme of studies has been made more effective and more uniform, and the length of the school term has increased. The Constitution of every state now contains some provision as to public education. Each state has an executive officer charged with the enforcement of the state school laws. ”

“ Every school board, board of education, board of vocational education, or county board of education which has control over the textbooks used in any district school, city school, vocational school, or high school, shall cause any textbook which the state superintendent has found contains matter prohibited in subsection (1) of this section to be withdrawn from use in such school prior to the opening of the school year following the publication of such finding of the state superintendent. ”

“ The Educational interests of the country are served by many agencies and organizations, chief among them the U.S. Bureau of Education, the Federal Board of Vocational Education at Washington, D.C., which publish invaluable material, and the National Education Association, with office at 1201 Sixteenth Street, Washington, D.C., membership in which keeps one in touch with progressive movements. ”