President Johnson Signs Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)

Duration: 7:01

Year Published: 1965

Format: 16mm

Sound: silent

Description: This unedited news coverage captures President Lyndon Baines Johnson signing the Elementary and Education Act in Johnson City in 1965. The ceremony took place outside of Johnson’s former one-room school, Junction Elementary School. The President’s childhood teacher, Kate Deadrich Loney, sat alongside him for the occasion. Notwithstanding the sequence of events in the footage, Johnson attended Palm Sunday services and visited the Pedernales Electric Cooperative before the ceremony. The guest list for the event included Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota and Representative Carl Albert of Oklahoma, both of whom Johnson thanked for helping to get the controversial bill through Congress. The legislation was a part of Johnson’s War on Poverty, and remains the most far-reaching federal legislation about education to be passed by the United States Congress. The act primarily serves to mandate funding for primary and secondary education, establishing standards and accountability. In emphasizing equal access and opportunity, the legislation also seeks to shorten achievement gaps between students. Originally authorized through 1965, the government has reauthorized the act every five years, including the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.