Lazarus Heads School Study

With Ralph Lazarus '35 in the important role of chairman of its subcommittee on education, the Committee for Economic Development last month issued a special report, Paying for Better Public Schools, that attracted national attention because of its recommendations of large-scale federal aid and of mandatory reorganization of public schools in order to achieve greater efficiency and economy.

The proposal of an annual federal outlay of about $600,000,000 was believed to be the first important endorsement of massive federal aid to education by a national organization representing business and industry. The CED is composed of 180 leading businessmen and educators.

Ralph Lazarus, who is president of Federated Department Stores, Inc., and who headed the two-year study of U. S. public education for the CED, wrote a supplementary booklet, We Can Have Better Schools, which contains a summary of the main report and an action program. Among the eleven members of his subcommittee on education was Beardsley Ruml '15, Dartmouth Trustee.

While noting recent progress in improving the nation's public schools, the CED report made four major recommendations: (1) mandatory action by state governments to bring about reorganization of small school districts into effective units of local government; (2) assumption by the states of a larger share of school costs now borne by local districts, with state funds distributed through foundation programs; (3) federal grants of about $600 million annually to states where income per public school pupil is below the national average; and (4) better organization of citizens who appreciate the need for improved schools, with participation by businessmen especially recommended.