Conant Lauds Present Local School System

President Conant last night stated in a speech at the Needham High School that "the tradition of local control of our schools is a vital part of the whole American concept of democracy."

"We must strengthen this tradition by making certain that the local control reflects the best thinking of the community," he said. He remarked, "Our vast system of public schools is both an instrument of forwarding American democracy and a concrete manifestation of that idealism which is the essence of the spirit of this republic."

Conant declared that nowhere else in the world today do local communities support free education as in the U.S., and that such schools have made American democracy what it is.