Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
This legislation expanded the role of the federal government in matters of education policy. Heretofore education policy was the realm of state and local governments, except for piecemeal federal government assistance beginning with the Morrill Act (1862).
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) constituted a basic part in what President Lyndon B. Johnson articulated as the “Great Society.” Previous congressional bills to assist education with funds for school construction and teachers’ salaries failed because of controversy about segregated schools and church-state issues regarding parochial schools. However, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 addressed the segregation issue and this proposal focused assistance upon school districts with many children from low-income families rather than on buildings and teachers’ salaries.
Much of the credit for the substance and legislative success of the bill went to President Johnson, the “teacher who became president.” He requested action on a proposed bill in an education message on January 12, 1965. The bill (H.R. 2362) received swift and favorable action in the House, gaining committee approval on March 8 and passage on a roll call by the whole House on March 26 (263–153). In less than three weeks the Senate approved the bill without changes, adopting it on April 9 with a favorable vote (73–18) as Public Law 89-10.
The law provided $1.1 billion to assist school districts with impoverished children. The provisions of the law were intended to affect schools in over 90 percent of the nation’s counties. Federal grants went to states that distributed the money to school districts according to the number of low-income (less than $2,000 per year) families served. Additional provisions of the law authorized grants for textbooks and library material, community educational centers, educational research, and funding to strengthen departments of education in the states.
The act paved the way for the federal government to intrude increasingly in education with Head Start, the Higher Education Act, the Bilingual Education Act, the Native American Education Act, the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (later named the Individuals with Disabilities Act), and the establishment of the Department of Education as a cabinet-level entity.
ESEA continued as the federal government’s flagship aid program for disadvantaged students. A significant restructuring of the act occurred in 2001 with the passage of President George Bush’s proposed No Child Left Behind Act, which incorporated substantial student testing and accountability requirements into the law. Adopted with compromises by a variety of interests, the reauthorized law received bipartisan support with approval in the House by a 281–41 vote on December 13 and approval less than a week later in the Senate on an 87–10 vote. The president signed the bill on January 8, 2002.
While the federal government plays a significant part in education policy oversight, its fiscal contribution continues to be small. The National Center for Education Statistics estimated in 2003 that states supply 50 percent of funding for elementary and secondary schools, local districts supplied 43 percent, and 7 percent comes from the national government.
| BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Congress and the Nation, vols. 2, 3 and 4 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1969, 1973, 1977); U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, “Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2000–2001,” NCES 2003-362, May (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2003). |
Jack R. Van Der Slik
SEE ALSO: Education; Morrill Act of 1862; No Child Left Behind Act