in public schools has a detrimental effect Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time of Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority. Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected. We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. This disposition makes unnecessary any discussion whether such segregation also violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Because these are class actions, because of the wide applicability of this decision, and because of the great variety of local conditions, the formulation of decrees in these cases presents problems of considerable complexity. On reargument, the consideration of appropriate relief was necessarily subordinated to the primary question -the constitutionality of segregation in public education. We have now announced that such segregation is a denial of the equal protection of the laws. In order that we may have the full assistance of the parties in formulating decrees, the cases will be restored to the docket, and the parties are requested to present further argument on Questions 4 and 5 previously propounded by the Court for the reargument this Term. The Attorney General of the United States is again invited to participate. The Attorneys General of the States requiring or permitting segregation in public education will also be permitted to appear as amici curiae upon request to do so by September 15, 1954, and submission of briefs by October 1, 1954. It is so ordered. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Ten years ago the first White House Conference on Education was held. Here is part of the committee's report to the President. From the work of the Committee for the White House Conference on Education, one fundamental fact emerges: schools now affect the welfare of the United States more than ever before in history, and this new importance of education has been dangerously underestimated for a long time. Some of the reasons for the rapidly increasing importance of the schools have been often noted. Ignorance is a far greater handicap to an individual than it was a generation ago, and an uneducated populace is a greater handicap to a nation. This trend is obviously going to continue and quicken. An equally important and less frequently mentioned reason for the growing importance of education is the plain fact that the schools have become the chief instrument for keeping this Nation the fabled land of opportunity it started out to be. In other decades, the opportunities of America lay primarily in escape from the rigid class barriers of Europe, the availability of free land at the frontier, and the excitement of a violently growing nation, where farms often became villages and villages became cities within the span of one human life. When the frontier was closed, it would have been easy for opportunities to dry up in this Nation, and for rigid class barriers to develop. It has been primarily the schools which have prevented this from happening. As long as good schools are available, a man is not frozen at any level of our economy, nor is his son. Schools free men to rise to the level of their natural abilities. Hope for personal advancement and the advancement of one's children is, of course, one of the great wellsprings of human energy. The schools, more than any other agency, supply this hope in America today. By providing a channel for ambition, they have taken the place of the frontier, and in a highly technical era, have preserved the independent spirit of a pioneer nation. The schools stand as the chief expression of the American tradition of fair play for everyone, and a fresh start for each generation. It is this fundamental conception of schools designed to give a fresh start to each generation that has broadened the ideals of education in America so much in the past 25 years. It is no longer thought proper to restrict educational programs to the skills of the mind, even though those skills remain of fundamental importance. Schools also attempt to improve children's health, to provide vocational training, and to do anything else which will help bring a child up to the starting line of adult life as even with his contemporaries as native differences in ability permit. The most practical aspect of this new concept of education is that it calls for the most careful mining and refining of all human talents in the land—it is in itself a kind of law against waste. This new educational ideal represents the fullest flowering of the long western tradition of emphasizing the dignity of the individual. Many difficulties, of course, attend its development, but the members of this Committee to be one of the great strengths of America. It is, of course, obvious that much progress has been made toward realizing this new educational ideal in the United States during the recent past. It is the belief of this Committee, however, that improvement has been nowhere near fast enough. The onrush of science has outstripped the schools. What is even more important, ideals of human conduct have in some areas advanced as rapidly as technology. Many a school which seemed good enough a generation ago now seems a disgrace to the community where it stands. The schools have fallen far behind both the aspirations of the American people and their capabilities. In the opinion of this Committee, there is growing resolve throughout the Nation to close the gap between educational ideals and educational realities. This Committee therefore makes the following fundamental recommendations. 1. We recommend that school authorities emphasize the importance of priorities in education. This Committee has embraced with enthusiasm the concept of schools which provide a great variety of services designed to do all that is possible to fit children for fruitful adult lives, but there is real danger that in attempting to do everything a little, schools may end by doing nothing well. At present, school funds are limited, and the student's time will always be limited. It is essential that schools pursue a policy of giving children first things first. In the rush for a great quantity of courses, quality must not be lost. The desire to provide education for all American children need not be inconsistent with the need to provide full opportunity for the gifted. 2. We recommend that the American people study carefully their systems of school organization and consider measures to deny funds, other than local, to districts which do not, after reasonable time, organize on an efficient basis. If the American people are asked to make sacrifices for better education, they deserve to have their funds used as efficiently as possible. This cannot be done without a great deal of reorganization in both rural and urban areas. There is no excuse for the existence of the 8,674 school districts which operate no schools. This is just one dramatic example of the need for reorganization. There is special need for studies of school systems in large cities, where most American children are now congregated. Ways must be found to decentralize large urban school systems to make them more responsive to the will of the people. 3. We recommend that local boards of education quickly assess their school building needs, and give this information to their State departments of education, and that the chief State school officers quickly relay this information to the United States Office of Education. Responsible estimates place the Nation's school building need at from less than 200,000 to nearly a half-million additional classrooms by 1960. Inadequate communication between local school districts and State departments of education is the chief cause for these contradictory figures. This Committee also recommends that every community and every State do all that is economically possible to construct the buildings required, and that during such emergency periods as now exist, Federal funds also be used wherever shown to be necessary. In the richest nation in all history, there is no valid reason for the grimy, dilapidated, and overcrowded school buildings which too many children now occupy. It is an ironic truth that most Americans would not permit their children to live in a house which is as bad as the school buildings which many pupils are forced by law to attend. 4. We recommend that greater inducements of all kinds be offered to attract and ages, every effort be made to utilize the services of available teachers more effectively. Practical steps must be taken to change the concept of teaching as an impoverished occupation. Teaching must be made a financially comfortable profession. Every effort must be made to devise ways to reward teachers according to their ability without opening the school door to unfair personnel practices. Present salary schedules have the effect of discouraging many able people from entering the profession. Teacher preparation programs have the reputation of requiring needless and repetitious courses. This reputation has the effect of deterring brilliant young people from becoming teachers. Salary schedules and preparation courses should be reexamined and changed where necessary to make the teaching profession more attractive to the most able young men and women. This Committee believes that the next decade and possibly two decades will be emergency periods during which the teacher shortage will grow more acute, but that there is ample reason to hope for sufficient supplies of good teachers in the long run. 5. We recommend that a new look be taken at the entire question of how much money this society should spend on education. In view of the recommendations of this Committee concerning the objectives of education, teachers, and buildings, it seems obvious that within the next decade the dollars spent on education in this Nation should be approximately doubled. Such an increase in expenditure would be an accurate reflection of the importance of education in this society. The exact sources of the necessary funds will be determined more easily when there is more public agreement that the funds must be provided, and more vigorous determination to do something about it. In the opinion of this Committee, money for schools must continue to come from all three levels of government, with a portion of funds for school buildings being made available by the Federal Government on an emergency basis. Good schools are admittedly expensive, but not nearly so expensive in the long run as poor ones. 6. We recommend that every possible step be taken to encourage the interest and activity of all citizens in school affairs. Citizen advisory groups, organizations of parents and teachers, education conferences, and all other means at the disposal of the people of a democracy should be utilized to keep the schools in close contact with the people. In the final analysis, it is only the public which can create good schools and nurture them. In the long run, schools must do what the public wants, and if no strong public will is made known, schools falter. Public interest in education is aroused only by knowledge of problems and intentions, and can continue only if the public can play an active role in school affairs. 7. We recommend that a White House Conference on Higher Education, similar in scope to the program just concluded on the needs of elementary and secondary schools, be held promptly to consider the many complex problems facing, or soon to face, the Nation's colleges and universities of President's Committee on Education beyond High School. This Committee believes there is yet time to acquaint the American people with their imminent needs in higher education, but the time grows shorter and shorter. The flood of students now in the elementary and secondary schools is not far away from the colleges. If the people of the United States expect to attract more and more students into college, they must begin preparing for them now. NATIONWIDE EDUCATIONAL POLICY By James Bryant Conant (1964) Here James B. Conant discusses a proposed system of interstate cooperation to shape a national education policy. As we have seen, educational policy in the United States has been determined in the past by the more or less haphazard interaction of (1) the leaders of public school teachers, administrators and professors of education, (2) state educational authorities, (3) a multitude of state colleges and universities, (4) private colleges and universities, and (5) the variety of agencies of the Federal government, through which vast sums of money have flowed*** to individual institutions and the states. It is my thesis that such a jumble of influential private and public bodies does not correspond to the needs of the nation in the 1960s. Some degree of order needs to be brought out of this chaos. I cannot help raising the question whether we do not need in the United States to create some sort of organization which will have the confidence of the state governments on the one hand, and on the other can bring to a focus a discussion of the important topics in education. Indeed I would hope there would be eventually not only a discussion but interstate cooperation.' The states that have entered into these interstate compacts have certainly taken important steps in the direction of a rational approach to our educational problems. But one is still bound to ask: Are these regional pacts enough? They are excellent in principle and could be most effective in operation, but why only regional agreements? Why not a new venture in cooperative federalism? Why not a compact between all the states? To be quite specific, let me be bold and make a suggestion for a possible way by which the road to the development of a nationwide educational policy might be opened up. Let the fifty states, or at least fifteen to twenty of the more populous states, enter into a compact for the creation of an "Interstate Commission for Planning a Nationwide Educational Policy." The compact would have to be drawn up by the states and approved by Congress. The document would provide for the membership of the commission and provide the guidelines for its operation. Each state would be represented*** ready to listen to any conclusions of the commission but, of course, would not be bound to follow its recommendations.*** I am well aware that there is no novelty in suggesting the appointment of a national body to plan for the future of American education. It is a time-honored scheme to have the President of the United States appoint a commission of educators and well-known laymen.*** I must admit that the record of national committees on education, however authorized and however appointed, is not such as to lead one to be optimistic about the results to be accomplished by still another committee. Yet the creation of a national commission which would be an interstate educational planning commis |