Elementary and Secondary Education Act
The act was originally authorized through 1965; however, the government has reauthorized the act several times since its enactment—often well after the expiration of the previous reauthorization. The reauthorization of ESEA by President George W. Bush was known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. ESEA was reauthorized on December 10, 2015 as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) by President Barack Obama.
Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson
Johnson, whose own ticket out of poverty was a public education in Texas, fervently believed that education was a cure for ignorance and poverty. In the 1960s, education funding was especially tight due to the demographic challenges posed by the large Baby Boomer generation, but Congress had repeatedly rejected increased federal financing for public schools. Johnson made education the top priority of the Great Society agenda, and placed an emphasis on helping poor children. After the 1964 landslide brought in many new liberal congressmen, LBJ launched a legislative effort which took the name of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. The bill sought to double federal spending on education from $4 billion to $8 billion. The bill passed the House by a vote of 263–153 on March 26, 1965, and then that same bill passed the Senate, 73-8, without going through the usual conference committee. In practice ESEA meant helping all public school districts, with more money going to districts that had large proportions of students from poor families. The bill prevented school districts that practiced segregation from receiving federal funding, and offered funding to parochial schools indirectly. The federal share of education spending rose from 3 percent in 1958 to 10 percent in 1965, and continued to grow after 1965. The act also contributed to a major increase in the pace of desegregation, as the share of Southern African-American students attending integrated schools rose from 2 percent in 1964 to 32 percent in 1968.