| Notes |
In May, 1965, Governor Sanford called a meeting of representatives of all organizations and associations related to education plus representatives of the National Governors' Conference to seek their advice "on the best method and organizational structure for bringing together the political and educational leadership of the several states for the purpose of studying, planning, suggesting and promoting sounder objectives and goals for the improvement of education in America.” 5 They met in Washington and the consensus was that the ideas should be developed.
As a result of the Washington meeting, a Special Planning Committee met in the spring and summer of 1965 to develop tentative proposals for forming the Compact. It consisted of representatives of the Governors' Conference Committee on Human Resources; the American Council on Education; the Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges; the Council of Chief State School Officers; the National School Boards Association; the National Association of State Boards of Education; the American Association of School Administrators; and a few advisors, such as John Ivey of the Michigan State University Department of Education, Mitchell Wendell of the Council of State Governments and Alan Pifer of the Carnegie Corporation as well as Governor Sanford and his staff.
The idea of an Interstate Compact for Education was submitted to the National Governors' Conference in July by the Governors' Conference Committee on Human Relations, chaired by Governor Richard Hughes of New Jersey and Governor Mark Hatfield of Oregon. The Committee said it believed the "proposals are of such a lasting significance and far-reaching importance as to be the subject of a special report to this Conference . . . . It is the belief of this Committee that the leadership in the determination of (educational) policy decisions must remain with the States . . . only by state leadership can our invaluable diversity be maintained . . . there must be a mechanism which will weld the states together into a nationwide organization. We agree with Governor Sanford that only by the vigorous leadership of the governors and the intensification of communications between the states can the desirable end of state pre- eminence in the field of education be preserved.”6 The Governors’ Conference adopted unanimously the committee’s special report stating the need for a nationwide alliance for the improvement of education with the active leadership and personal participation of the governors.
4. Terry Sanford, April 6, 1965.
5. Terry Sanford, April 30, 1965.
6. Special Report of the Committee on Human Resources, National Governors' Conference, July 27, 1965, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |