International Association of Machinists collection of White House Conference on Education records

The White House Conference on Education occurred November 28-December 1, 1955, in Washington, D.C. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had proposed the conference during his 1954 State of the Union address. Demographics were the impetus for the conference. Educators feared that the large, post-World War Two "baby boom" generation, which started to reach school age in the early 1950s, would overwhelm the established system of free education and the population of qualified teachers. Leading up to the White House Conference, each state or territory held its own conference to create a report to its governor, who then appointed representatives for the national conference A Conference Committee planned the sessions and created a final report to President Eisenhower. At the Conference, the attendees (600 professional educators and 1,200 lay representatives) voted overwhelmingly to recommend increased federal aid for education.

Albert J. Hayes, President of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), served on the Conference Committee. He appointed IAM Grand Lodge Representative W. G. Flinn to the committee staff, which also included representation from the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In all, the AFL had a delegation of over 60 representatives from the states and territories at the conference. President Hayes did not attend the Conference, because he was in New York City the for the December convention where the AFL merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations. IAM Legislative Representative George Nelson went in his place.