Expansion of Educational Television

Report Outline
New Support for Educational Television
State of Educational Television Today
Effectiveness of Tv as Teaching Tool
Special Focus

New Support for Educational Television

Educational television, now celebrating its tenth anniversary with 63 stations on the air, is expected to advance more rapidly in the next few years. More than 40 additional stations are making preparations to go on the air. The growth to date has been achieved without any financial assistance from the federal government. State, local and private funds alone have made it possible for more than three million pupils in 7,500 schools to benefit from instructional television programs.

Because televsion is believed capable of sparking a broad upgrading in the quality of Amercan education, with maximum development of individual potentialities at comparatively low cost, Congress has been asked to provide federal “seed money” to accelerate expansion of state and regional educational TV systems now in operation or in the planning stage. President Kennedy said in his special education message to Congress, Feb. 6, that it was apparent that “Federal stimulus and leadership are essential if the vast educational potential of this medium is to be realized.”

Provisions of Pending Bills for Federal Aid

The Senate on March 21, 1961, passed a bill introduced by Sen. Warren G. Magnuson (D Wash.) to authorize grants of up to $1 million in the next five years to each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia to establish television stations for in-school instructional broadcasting. The funds were to be available only for purchase and installation of transmission apparatus; they could not be used to buy land or buildings or to pay operating expenses. The Senate-passed bill was referred in the House to the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee.