NATIONAL CONGRESS OF PARENTS AND TEACHERS

600 SOUTH MICHIGAN BOULEVARD
CHICAGO ILLINOIS

 

i FOR YOUR INFORMATION |

January 9, 1941

To: State Presidents
State Chairmen of Legislation

Owing to misinformation which has been circulated among our
states, Mrs. Kletzer has asked me to write you regarding a
bill which was introduced in the last U.S. Congress under

the title of the Schwert bill H.R. 10606, and which has just
been reintroduced in this Congress. The material sent out

on this bill by the American Association of Health, Physical
Education, and Recreation states that the Congress of Parents
and Teachers, national, state, and local, has endorsed this
bill, The National Congress has not endorsed this bill and,
in its present form, is not likely to endorse it. Mrs.
Kletzer asked me to remind you that this bill affects several
of our committees, and under our procedures each of these com-
mittees would need to be satisfied with the provisions of the
bill as it affects their work, We have not had, to date, such
endorsement by these committees.

This bill also cuts across activities which we have built up
with cooperating agencies in the fields of health, education,
recreation, and safety. These agencies were not consulted
when the bill was drafted. Notwithstanding the claims of its
proponents that there is no Federal control, the bill tends
toward Federal control in almost every section, May we further
invite attention to the fact that if the maximum amounts were
reached under Parts 1 and 2 of the bill, the total for both
would be $200,000,000 annually, or two-thirds of the total
amount authorized annually in the old Harrison-Fletcher bill
for all areas of education. This, it would seem, might lessen
the possibility of ever obtaining equitable appropriations for
other equally important phases of education.

An organization such as ours, having no special interest to
promote, is in an excellent position to evaiuate a program in
its relationship to the whole educationai and community health
picture, For a lasting and effective program in health and
recreation, it is necessary to keen a very long view. In this
way we Shall be able to follow through on the statement accepted
by the National Congress this fall, in which it pledged itself
to "hew to the line” in the work being done in behalf of chil-
dren during the emergency.