By Anthony Hopkins
Fifty years ago this month on a wet, chilly day in Texas, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the historic legislation, the Higher Education Act. Better known as “The HEA,” the law that President Johnson signed that overcast day was intended to build a brighter future for American higher education and open college and university doors to millions of Americans.
Over the course of a series of articles, FAMU Forward will reflect back on the implementation of the HEA and look ahead to its pending reauthorization, which is currently making its way through Congress. The current reauthorization will be the ninth reauthorization of the Higher Education Act since that historic signing.
During this series, FAMU Forward will examine the HEA’s impact on Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and we’ll share interviews with staff and faculty who oversee the many programs that were derived from the passage of the Higher Education Act.
The Higher Education Act
President Johnson championed the Higher Education Act as one of six bills that were the cornerstone of his “Great Society.” In addition to the HEA, those bills included the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which effectively opened public accommodations to African-Americans; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which ignited voter registration and participation of racial minorities; the Economic Opportunity Act (EOA), which was the essential principle of Johnson’s war on poverty and established the Jobs Corps, workforce training and employer incentives for hiring the unemployed; the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which funneled $1 billion to K–12 elementary schools that had a high percentage of low-income students and helped encourage state governments to expand their involvement in education; and finally, Medicare, which was passed in 1965 to help older Americans, mostly veterans, obtain healthcare and reduce poverty in aging Americans.
With the goal of strengthening American colleges and universities, the Higher Education Act of 1965 was intended to provide financial assistance to students pursuing higher education. Also, the act was intended to support colleges and universities that were “developing” and needed assistance with faculty development programs, facilities, and related infrastructure.
The Higher Education Act’s guiding principle, however, was to provide opportunity and access to higher education for low and middle-income students.
Even the ceremonial signing of the bill was meant to emphasize the law’s intent.
Johnson and his staff chose the president’s alma mater, Southwest Texas State College (now Texas State University), to underscore the importance of providing assistance to students with demonstrated financial need. Sitting at the very desk he used as a student worker in the president’s office of his university, Johnson signed the bill into law.
For Johnson, the bill represented more than a political victory; the bill represented a fulfillment of a personal journey.
Born into a family of modest means, Johnson attended public schools and as an undergraduate student he worked odd jobs and borrowed money to attend college. While pursuing his undergraduate degree, in addition to working as a secretary in the president’s office, he was a custodian in Southwest Texas State College’s old main academic building. In fact, as a student, Johnson swept floors in the very building in which he symbolically signed the historic legislation.
As the rain fell in Texas on November 8, 1965, Johnson was fulfilling his life’s journey of providing a transformative educational experience that propelled students into a meaningful career, and into the middle class, thereby helping them become contributing members of society.
Initial components of the legislation were outlined during Johnson’s annual State of the Union address to Congress in January 1965. Johnson extolled the belief that colleges and universities could offer expert guidance to a government in areas such as community planning, and research and development that addressed educational and civic problems, and that government could help strengthen developing institutions. He especially believed the government needed to support the colleges and universities that served the disenfranchised and underrepresented.
At the time of the signing, supporters of the legislation were concerned about the rising costs of college at a time when it was considered a necessity for young people to have a college education to obtain quality employment opportunities.
Those concerns are echoes of 21st-century concerns. Today, like in 1965, students and their families are concerned with rising tuition costs, significant debt, and reduced employment opportunities. Issues that were present 50 years ago at the signing of the HEA by the 89th session of Congress exist today as the 114th session of Congress convenes to reauthorize this important legislation.
This is the first article in FAMU Forward’s series on the impact of the Higher Education Act’s implementation. Next Chapter: Titles I to V – Opening up New Opportunities