Aid-to-Education Bill Clears Senate; University Might Request $800,000

Harvard may submit a few request for up to $800,000 in NDEA loan funds for the current fiscal year, under an amended National Defense Education Act authorization bill which passed the Senate yesterday. The bill raised the maximum amount available to any one institution from $250,000 to $800,000, and authorized a four step increase in total expenditures from the current $90 million to $150 million in fiscal '67. A bill passed by the House earlier this year authorized annual expenditures of $135 million.

The University received allotments of $250,000 in NDEA funds this year and last year. The requests of many other institutions, however, were slashed below the maximum by the Office of Education earlier this Fall when it was not certain that the amended bill would pass.

The NDEA measure was part of an overall education bill authorizing $3.2 billion for vocational training, college loans and impacted areas.

The bill expanded a straight vocational education bill that was passed by the House earlier this year. The new version must win House approval before it can go to the White House.

The roll call vote in the Senate was lopsided, with the bill passing 60-4.

It marked the first time that the Senate has voted on any recommendation made by President Kennedy in his comprehensive education message last Jan. 29.

The vocational education funds in the Senate version are exactly what Kennedy asked in his civil rights message last June 19. He said then that even if job opportunities could be opened up for Negroes, they badly need more training to fit them for employment.

Sponsors of the new program also contend that present high school programs are orientated too much toward college preparation. To help cut down on dropouts there should be many different types of vocational training, they say.