The 1940s Education: Chronology

1940:      Ten million adults are listed as illiterate (unable to read or write) by the United States census.

1940:     June The U.S. Supreme Court rules that any child who refuses to salute the American flag should be expelled from school.

1941:     July 1 College students are no longer allowed to defer being drafted into the military.

1941:     July At the University of Georgia, the pro-equality dean of education is fired by state governor Gene Talmadge. The firing leads to many faculty resignations, and the university loses its accreditation.

1941:     December 16 In a scheme to help students graduate before reaching the military draft age of twenty-one, liberal arts colleges begin offering three-year degrees. These accelerated programs include classes taken during the summer.

1942:      The U.S. Armed Forces Institute, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, begins offering correspondence courses.

1942:     January The College Entrance Examination Board overhauls its testing methods. Instead of taking the traditional essay test, students begin taking tests measuring reading ability, problem-solving skills, and general knowledge.

1942:     July It is estimated that there is a shortage of fifty thousand teachers in the United States.

1943:      The U.S. Supreme Court reverses its decision to allow schools to expel students who refuse to salute the flag.

1943:     April U.S. Education Commissioner John W. Studebaker promotes education for African Americans.

1943:     November President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, later to become the GI Bill of Rights, the goal of which is to provide education for soldiers returning from military service.

1944:      The American Armed Forces Institute offers 275 courses to war veterans.

1944:      The Progressive Education Association changes its name to the American Education Fellowship.

1944:     June 22 The Servicemen's Readjustment Act is signed into law by President Roosevelt.

1944:     October 3–4 A conference on rural education is sponsored by the White House. It aims to find out whether the federal government could fund local education through state governments.

1945:     June Virginia allocates $1.2 million to produce educational movies for public school students. The project is inspired by the success of the military in using films to educate soldiers.

1945:     September The University of Maryland makes American history a compulsory part of its undergraduate curriculum.

1945:     November 1–16 The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is founded.

1946:      The U.S. Armed Forces Institute has enrolled eight hundred thousand veterans in correspondence courses. Fifty-three percent of students in residential college courses are war veterans.

1946:     July The National Education Association announces that three hundred and fifty thousand teachers have left the profession since 1941.

1946:     July 30 President Harry S Truman signs a bill allowing the United States to participate in UNESCO.

1946:     August Public Law 584, known as the Fulbright Act, is passed by Congress. The act provides assistance for students and academics to travel around the world to study in order to encourage cultural understanding.

1947:      The cold war puts an end to many of UNESCOs educational programs in developing countries.

1947:     February 2 In Buffalo, New York, 2,400 teachers go on strike for higher pay. Governor Thomas E. Dewey will later make strikes by teachers illegal.

1947:     September Seventy-five thousand students go without schooling nationwide because there are not enough teachers.

1947:     October Separate education for blacks and whites is condemned by the President's Committee on Civil Rights.

1948:      New Jersey desegregates its public schools. From now on, black and white students in New Jersey will study together.

1948:     March In Minneapolis, Minnesota, there is a twenty-seven-day teachers' strike for higher wages.

1948:     March 8 In McCollum v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court outlaws religious education or activity in public schools.

1948:     April 1 Although the Senate passes a bill providing $300 million in federal education funding for the states, it is defeated in the U.S. House of Representatives.

1949:      The New York state university system opens its first campus. It will eventually include thirty small institutions.

1949:      The House Un-American Activities Commission (HUAC) requires that lists of books used in courses be submitted for inspection. The Commission is looking for Communist Party propaganda.