From The Indianapolis News, Thursday, July 2, 1925: The creation of a federal department of education with a secretary in the President’s cabinet was enthusiastically endorsed today by delegates to the National Education Association convention meeting at Caleb Mills Hall, Shortridge High School. The proposal provides no federal financial subsidies to the states but would provide for research and the collecting of statistics and other data to show the condition and progress of education in the United States. These studies would be made available to state educational officers and others interested in education. Columbia University Professor George Strayer, chair of the N. E. A. legislative committee, said, “Surely, education is not less significant to the life of the nation, nor less worthy of recognition in the cabinet of the President, as already enjoyed by departments of agriculture, labor, and commerce.”