SELECTED LEGAL PROBLEMS IN

PROVIDING FEDERAL AID

FOR EDUCATION

by

ROBERT R. HAMILTON

with an introduction by

PAUL R. MORT

Staff Study Number 7

Prepared for

THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1938

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.

Price 15 cents (paper cover)

FOREWORD BY THE COMMITTEE

The Advisory Committee on Education was appointed by the President of the United States on September 19, 1936, initially for the purpose of making a study of the experience under the existing program of Federal aid for vocational education, the relation of such training to general education and to prevailing economic and social conditions, and the extent of the need for an expanded program of Federal aid for vocational education. The Committee was requested to develop recommendations that would be available to the Congress and the Executive. Under its original assignment, the Committee was known as the President's Committee on Vocational Education.

In a later letter dated April 19, 1937, the President stated that he had been giving much thought to the general relationship of the Federal Government to education, that numerous bills in connection with educational matters were pending in the Congress, and that it was his understanding that the Committee was already in possession of much information bearing upon the subject. He therefore requested the Committee to give more extended consideration to the whole subject of Federal relationship to State and local conduct of education, and to prepare a report.

In accordance with this request, the Committee enlarged the scope of its work and prepared a comprehensive report, which was transmitted to the President on February 18, 1938, and was transmitted by him to the Congress on February 23, 1938. The report was printed as House Document No. 529, Seventy-fifth Congress, third session. An indexed edition of the report, differing in pagination but not in text, was also printed for public use by the Advisory Committee, and has been made widely available.1

1 The Advisory Committee on Education, Report of the Committee, for sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Price 35 cents.

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The Committee was assisted in its work by a temporary staff of specialists in education, public administration, and economics. The major function of this staff was to collect, analyze, and interpret available data bearing upon the problems under consideration by the Committee. Time did not permit any extensive amount of original research, and original research was not attempted except in areas where the existing information seemed entirely inadequate. The work of the staff did result, however, in a number of studies which present in convenient form a large amount of information bearing upon the status and problems of education in the United States.

The present volume is one of the studies prepared by the research staff. The statements and conclusions contained in it are those of the author, and do not necessarily conform to those of the Committee. The findings of this study were considered by the Committee, however, in formulating the conclusions and recommendations that appear in its own report.

Dr. Robert R. Hamilton, the author of this study, is Professor of Law, the University of Wyoming. In recent years he has devoted much attention to research and teaching in the field of school law. Previously he was actively engaged for a number of years in public school administration.

The study was carried on under the general supervision of Dr. Paul R. Mort, Professor of Education and Director of the Advanced School of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, and is intended to supplement from the legal point of view the work reported in Staff Study No. 5, Principles and Methods of Distributing Federal Aid for Education. The constitutional provisions, statutes, and decisions of the courts cited in this study are principally those in effect in the summer of 1937. In a few instances later material has been added by the author since the initial completion of the study for consideration by the Committee.

In the time available for this study it was not possible to examine all of the legal questions which will eventually require consideration in the administration of Federal aid programs. Dr. Hamilton has, however, treated certain of the most important problems.

AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to make acknowledgment to the following persons for valuable criticisms and suggestions throughout the preparation of this study: Dr. Paul R. Mort, Professor of Education and Director of the Advanced School of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, under whose general direction the study was carried on; Dr. Francis G. Cornell, of the same institution; Dr. Eugene S. Lawler, Professor of Education, Northwestern University; and Miss Fredlyn Ramsey, of the staff of the Advisory Committee on Education. The writer is also deeply indebted to other members of the staff of the Advisory Committee for invaluable assistance in the preparation and completion of the manuscript for publication. To the legal staff of the Department of the Interior for making the facilities of the law library available, the author wishes to give special acknowledgment.

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