The New Deal's National Youth Administration in Kansas

Abstract:After the stock market crashed in 1929, financially strapped students left high school and college, joining the ranks of approximately five million unemployed young adults. To bring students back to the classroom through a work-study program and to give employment and teach marketable skills to "out-of-school" youth twenty-four years old and younger, President Roosevelt created the National Youth Administration in 1935 with Executive Order 7086. The National Youth Administration was sometimes compared to the Civilian Conservation Corps, but there were notable differences. The National Youth Administration included both men and women, enrolled males too young for the Civilian Conservation Corps, and incorporated work projects similar to those undertaken by the Works Progress Administration. This article focuses on the Kansas experience to illustrate and examine the National Youth Administration's national policies, implementation, relationship to war work during World War II, and long-term legacy.