A Good Beginning

In deciding to subsidize its supply of technically trained college men and women with $5,000,000 worth of scholarships, the federal government has started a revolutionary change in higher education. From the meagre wartime beginning the program can blossom into full national responsibility for learning. It is the first step toward bringing our democratic education out from under its cloak of platitudes and taking it out of the hands of religious sects and businessmen.

Naturally Congress tied some strings to this bill, but it saved its ball and chain for Leon Henderson. The grants will not exceed $500 a year, which may not be enough in many cases, and will be repayable loans and not full scholarships. The loans are specifically provided for seven fields of study; engineering, physics, chemistry, medicine, veterinary, dentistry, and pharmacy. Only students who can complete their education in the next two years will receive them. While it may plug the biggest gaps, the bill does not provide for all the specialists now needed. And it will have to be put through the whole amending process as new needs develop. When General Hershey's office is sending out practically blanket deferments for pre-theological students, who have already been declared necessary, the demand for specialists not listed must be greater than the measure supposes. Yet this is the first time the government had aided students directly without tying on picayune work for which busy men have no time. The limited scope of the measure, however, may be partially excused on the grounds of experiment.

In this way the government has cleared the deferment haze, and the war machine is provided with valuable parts. And if the government can pay for a veterinarian's education in wartime it can certainly help to train its peacetime leaders. The United States has learned that the federal government must assume responsibility for making the economy work. It is time the nineteenth century's tag-line "equal educational opportunities" was modernized. America is the only country in the world whose educational system has no national coherence. Through the present emergency bill the national government can enter the field of education and make sure its future leaders regardless of financial status will receive college training. Some safeguards may be needed later, but this measure is both an effective war program and a fortunate precedent for American education.