Dwight Eisenhower on Education

1957 STEM focus follows from Cold War ideology

1957: Enforced school desegregation with federal troops

African-American children in Topeka, Kansas had been denied access to all-white schools due to rules allowing for separate but equal facilities. The idea of separate but equal was given legal standing with the 1896 Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. This doctrine required that any separate facilities had to be of equal quality. However, the plaintiffs in this case argued that segregation was inherently unequal. The Brown decision overturned the separate but equal doctrine established by the Plessy decision.

$1.3B for four-year school construction program

At once the bill ran into crossfire. Against federal participation in school construction, in that year of economy, stood the Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion. The states, they insisted, could do the job without any help from Washington. Federal aid, they said, would be the thin end of the wedge for federal domination and a contributor to the unconscionable size of the federal budget and federal taxes.

National Defense Education Bill: focus on science & math

1. To strengthen American education, particularly in science, mathematics, and foreign languages, the Congress passed the administration's National Defense Education Bill.
2. Despite entrenched opposition on Capitol Hill, we recommended and obtained new legislation to reduce interservice rivalries and to strengthen the control of the President and the Secretary of Defense over strategic planning and operations.
3. Obtaining needed laws for intensifying research and development for both peaceful and military purposes, we established a new space agency under civilian authority, and orbited a succession of satellites.

Ordered troops to enforce integration of Little Rock schools

On Sep. 23, from all over the city, a mob of more than 1,000 angry and determined whites, stirred up by recent events and Gov. Faubus, converged on Central High School, determined to keep out the Negro students who were due to enter. For 3 hours the mob rioted outside, until the police removed the Negro children from the school.

There was only one justification for the use of troops: to uphold the law. Though Faubus denied it, I, as President, now had that justification and the clear obligation to act. I issued the required proclamation. "I will use the full power of the US including whatever force may be necessary to prevent any obstruction of the law and to carry out the orders of the Federal Court."

Antarctica Treaty: free and cooperative scientific research

The United States is always ready to participate with the Soviet Union in serious discussion of these or any other subjects that may lead to peace with justice.

Establish recognizable standards for teachers and teaching

We must have teachers of competence. To obtain and hold them we need standards. We need a National Goal. Once established I am certain that public opinion would compel steady progress toward its accomplishment.

Such studies would be helpful, I believe, to government at all levels and to all individuals. The goals so established could help us see our current needs in perspective. They will spur progress.