Future of Education Bill Appears Bleak

The Administration's aid-to-education bill entered Congress on Monday, and is now being examined by the House Education and Labor Committee. Prospects for passage of the entire measure appear dim, according to some members of Congress.

Included in the single bill is aid for elementary and high schools, junior colleges, technical institutions, libraries, and adult education facilities, the Associated Press reported. Funds would be used to raise teacher's salaries and build public school classrooms.

The Administration estimates that $4.6 billion would be spent in a three-year education aid program, but Republicans claim the actual value may be over $7 billion.

Private and parochial school aid and the distribution of funds for higher education are the problems which now threaten the bill with the same defeat that met last year's federal education effort.

The Administration is still against special tax cuts for those who pay private and parochial school tuitions.

Some members of Congress object to the presentation of the program as a single bill. They would prefer to discuss and vote on each proposal separately and fear that the whole program may be defeated if it is kept in its present consolidated form.

Anthony J. Celebrezze, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, supported the administration's all-or-none approach. He also noted that while government scholarships to college students were not being proposed now, they should be seriously studied for future possibilities.

Francis Keppel, U.S. Commissioner of Education and former Dean of the Graduate School of Education, is due to testify during the two weeks that the bill will be in committee.