Federal Aid to Education
Federal Aid to Education, in the United States. The United States government spends several billion dollars annually to provide greater educational opportunity to all academic levels as well as to improve the quality of education. The money, appropriated by Congress under a number of legislative acts, is paid out mainly in grants to states, local school systems, and institutions of higher learning and in loans and grants to students. Financial assistance programs for elementary, secondary, and college education are generally administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Various graduate fellowships and traineeships are available through other federal agencies, most notably the National Science Foundation.
Veterans receive money for education from the federal government under a series of laws referred to as the GI Bills. The aid program is administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
There are special programs for the disabled and for preschool children from deprived backgrounds. In addition, there is separate legislation concerning vocationaltraining programs.
The Constitution does not mention education, but from the early 1800's the United States government helped provide free schools by public-land grants. The Morrill acts of 1862 and 1890 provided for landgrant colleges. Beginning in 1917 federal funds were voted for vocational education below the college level.
During the 1960's, federal aid to public schools increased substantially, particularly through programs for needy and handicapped children. Higher education, which had benefited for years from federal research grants, received new federal assistance in construction funds and in tuition aid to children of low-income parents. In the late 1970's tuition aid was made available to middle-income families as well.
Increased federal aid also brought an increase in federal regulation of the schools. Many educators considered the regulation excessive or objectionable—they objected, for example, to a requirement for mixing boys and girls in the same gym classes—and they found fault with the amount of paperwork required. In the early 1980's the Reagan administration reduced federal aid and removed or eased some of the government's regulations.