Birth of a Policy: Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
1. Birth of a Policy:
Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA) of 1965
Presentation By: Malika Bennett
Strategic Advocacy - June 9, 2012
2. What is ESEA?
• United States federal statute enacted April 11, 1965 and
signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• ESEA is the most influential law impacting education
passed by congress. First Passed with relative ease
(House 263-153; Senate 73-18). First federal law
mandating federal funds to primary and secondary
education
• Improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged
children, federal government's definitive entry into public President
education Lyndon B. Johnson
• Part of Johnson’s "war on poverty" act (close skill gaps in
reading, writing, math, etc among nation’s
disadvantaged)
• Act funds public education including: professional
development, instructional materials, resources for
educational programs, parental involvement promotion,
etc.
•
3. Sections of ESEA (1965)
• Title I - Financial Assistance To Local
Educational Agencies For The Education Of
Children Of Low-Income Families
• Title II - School Library Resources, Textbooks,
and other Instructional Materials
• Title III - Supplementary Educational Centers
and Services
• Title IV - Educational Research And Training
• Title V - Grants To Strengthen State
Departments Of Education
• Title VI - General Provisions
4. Social Climate
• America has historically favored local control of schools
• Prior to the 1950’s federal involvement in education was almost
non-existent
• Many year’s prior to the 1960’s U.S resisted a national education
policy
• In fact as late as 1930’s less than 1/5 of adults over 25 had
completed high school
What prompted interest in creating national education
policy?
5. Timeline for Education Policy
1954 - Brown vs. Board of Education requires public schools to educate all
children, regardless of race.
1954 - The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) (Public Law 84-911)
provided funding to United States education institutions.
1964 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Public Law 88-352) authorized the
Commissioner of Education to arrange for support for institutions of higher
education and school districts to provide in-service programs for assisting
instructional staff in dealing with problems caused by desegregation.
1965 - Primary and secondary education is funded through the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (Public Law 89-10). The ESEA was designed
to address educational inequality.
1965 - The first Federal grant program targeting students with disabilities, the
Elementary and Secondary Amendments of 1965 (Public Law 89-313), was
passed. This law authorized grants to state institutions and state-operated
schools devoted to the education of children with disabilities.
Source: http://www.avoiceonline.org/edpol/timeline.html
6. Major Political Advocates of ESEA
Francis Keppel, Jr.
Former Harvard grad & Harvard dean; U.S.
Commissioner of Education; Chief architect of ESEA
bill; helped shaped policy; influential in bringing
opposing parties together (think race, religion,
republicans, etc.)
President Lyndon B. Johnson
A former teacher who had seen impact poverty had
on his students; President of the United States;
signed ESEA into law in 1965
Other political influencers: President Truman, Eisenhower
and Kennedy; Much of ESEA came from the late President
Kennedy’s proposal; Martin Luther King, Jr.
7. ESEA Advocates
• President Johnson’s Administration
• US Office of Education (USOE)
• Democratic Party (House & Senate Majority)
• National Advisory Council for the Education of
Disadvantaged Children
• National Education Association (NEA)
• National Welfare Rights Organization
• Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• NAACP
• African Americans, Minorities, etc.
• Poor and disadvantaged populations
8. ESEA Opposition
The three R’s are ESEA’s main opposition: Race, Religion, and
Republicans
• States-Rights Conservatives
• Anti-Government Conservatives
• Catholics (opposed any bill that would direct federal money to public
but not private schools
• Congressman for Southern States
• Congressman from Northern States with large African American
populations
9. Communications Efforts Surrounding ESEA
• Civil Rights Movement and War on Poverty
provided political context for passage of
ESEA; Much of ESEA’s public
communication was naturally tied to these
movements:
– Types of communication: Marches,
Speeches, Protests, National Media
Coverage (TV, Newspaper, Radio),
Advertisements, Pamphlets, Academic
journals, books written about achievement
gaps, music, etc.
– The Civil Rights Movement made this bill
successful – it drove awareness on issues
of inequality.
W on Poverty Ad: LBJ 1964
ar
Presidential Campaign Commercial:
http:/www.youtube.com/
/ watch?v=phYimkeI0LA
10. Key Re-Authorizations of ESEA
1965 - Congress passes ESEA. It is signed into law by President Lyndon B.
Johnson
1994 - ESEA reauthorized, introduced under President Bill Clinton as the
Improving America's Schools Act (IASA). (Extra help to disadvantaged
students, charter schools, safe and drug-free schools, increases in bilingual
and immigrant education funding, education technology programs, etc.)
2002 - No Child Left Behind act is the reauthorization of ESEA. Signed into
law by President George W. Bush (assessments for all students,
achievement standards set by states, not federal government)
2011 - No Child Left Behind act (reauthorization of ESEA) is renewed and
signed back into law by President Barrack Obama
11. That’s all folks
Thank you!
For more information Google: “ESEA of 1965”
Hinweis der Redaktion
-Key legislation, revolutionary act.
What prompted interest in creating national education policy? -World War II -GI Bill, which created a huge increase in college enrollment -Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown Vs. Board – Desegregation of all schools, equal education opportunity NDEA – categorical aid to states to improve math, science and foreign language instruction in American schools, ($1 billion or 2 percent of national educational spending, still quite small) Civil Rights Movement
Keppel was clever – Catholics and National Education Association (key democrats butt heads, but he wrote the policy to focus on the poor and disadvantaged which brought these opposing groups together)
NEA - did not want any federal education aid to benefit private schools