Postwar Public Education

Report Outline
Reconversion of Public School Systems
Merits and Weaknesses of the Public Schools
Federal Government and the Public Schools

Reconversion of Public School Systems

Enrollment in America's public schools is expected to reach unprecedented levels as demobilization of the armed forces proceeds and as demands for labor slacken. Many young veterans who left school to join the Army or Navy will be resuming their studies. Many of the younger boys and girls who deserted the classroom for war jobs also will be going back to school. And kindergarten ranks are to be swelled as a consequence of the high birth rate during the war years. The resulting increases in school enrollment will pose serious problems for an educational plant that is generally under-staffed and under-equipped.

President Truman said, in his Sept. 6 message to Congress on the problems of the reconversion period, that he would ask for legislation in the near future to “improve our program of education for our citizens.” Specific recommendations on federal aid to education have not yet been submitted, but when the President on Oct. 23 urged Congress to approve a system of universal military training, he took occasion to point out ways in which peacetime training would “help trainees improve their educational status.”

The period of training could well be used to raise the physical standards of the nation's manpower, to lower its illiteracy rate, and to develop …the ideals of responsible American citizenship.…After the first few months of training, selected trainees …could be trained in certain skills so that if war came they could take their places in shipyards, munitions factories and similar industrial plants.…Outstanding trainees could be selected …and sent to college with government financial aid.