Education Reform Dbq

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Johnson who was educated in a tiny, rural school wanted everyone to have the same opportunity to get the best education that they could get provided with through their federal government or state. With a quarter of the population not completing high school, the education system had been at risk. It was so extreme to the point where African Americans were being denied equal education daily (Wilson). These things had caused education reform to be a key part of the Great Society. On April 11, 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed. The act required the federal government to help, for the first time, local school districts whose students come from low-income families. “As a son of a tenant farmer, I know that education is the only valid passport from poverty,” said by Johnson, who taught at a Hispanic school in a poor town. …show more content…

As president of the United States, I believe deeply no law I have signed or will ever sign means more to the future of America (“Evaluating the success of the Great Society”).” As a Senate majority leader in 1956, Johnson was one of three Southern senators who refused to sign the Southern Manifesto, a pledge to resist the Brown v. Board of Education. The was a historic decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 that ended up opening the way for integration of the public schools (Wilson). Also, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act funded preschool programs, supported school libraries, purchased school textbooks, and provided special education services (History.com Staff, “Great