CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE

August 11, 1967

Page 22381

A CONSTITUENT VIEWS THE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ACT AND THE ELEMENTARY-SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT

Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, recently I received a letter from a former schoolteacher, Mrs. Jack Werboff, of Bar Harbor, Maine. I am deeply impressed with Mrs. Werboff's insight and views of the Economic Opportunity Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

In the legislation creating the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, President Johnson and the Congress began the task of meeting urgent social and educational needs of the Nation. The Economic Opportunity Act is a new and ingenious approach, developing Federal, State, and local resources to involve the poor in raising themselves from the misery of rural and urban poverty. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is an investment in America's future by providing enriched educational opportunities previously unavailable in many communities to aid undereducated children. With the encouragement and assistance of perceptive Americans such as Mrs. Werboff, I am confident the goals of these programs can be achieved.

I ask unanimous consent that Mrs. Werboff's letter to me be inserted in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.

There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

BAR HARBOR, MAINE, August 2, 1967. Hon. EDMUND S. MUSKIE,

Senate Office Building,

Washington, D.C.

DEAR SENATOR MUSKIE: I am writing to urge your support of the poverty legislation currently under Congressional consideration. I refer to the Economic Opportunity Amendments and the Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments.

I am prompted to write because I feel that recent riots in our cities increase the urgency of the need for the "war on poverty". I believe that now is the time for renewed commitment of ideas, energy and funds so that equality of opportunity can become a reality rather than a frustrating dream for millions of our poor. It may well be that these national disturbances are the result of our failure as citizens to carry through our commitment in spirit and in money. I recognize that this may be a long and arduous domestic war, but we will realize our victory in terms of human lives redeemed.

As a former teacher, I am especially impressed with our local use of money for compensatory programs for underprivileged children: the Teacher Aide program for the classroom teacher, the library assistants, additional teaching materials and equipment. These adjuncts to education may still be in experimental use, but they are expanding the educational horizons of disadvantaged children.

We also have a Job Camp in our community (Acadia Job Corps Center) which has literally provided a new start in life for several hundred young boys. It hasn't been an easy rebirth for them, socially, educationally or emotionally, but they are leaving our center with new learning skills, new work skills and new confidence in their own worth as self sustaining individuals.

I sincerely hope that these programs, as well as others with which I am less familiar, will continue to function under the Office of Economic Opportunity which encourages locally developed programs and experimentation. Despite its imperfections the OEO is an essential focal point for the difficult job of coordinating and evaluating programs to meet the needs of the poor.

How better can we insure that the poverty programs, administered by whatever federal agency, will be directed to the needs of the poor than through the offices of an agency created especially for that purpose?

Continued and substantial funding would seem necessary so that the defects and inadequacies of the poverty program can be pursued and corrected. We are just now realizing some of the benefits in human spirit and human worth. To stop short now would plunge us back again into the vastly more expensive welfare and relief programs. Our local relief budget has been noticeably decreased since the onset of the poverty programs. To many of us taxpayers a dollar spent to redeem an individual as a contributing member of society is a dollar returned twofold.

Thank you for your kind attention. Very truly yours,

Mrs. JACK WERBOFF.