Lyndon B. Johnson

===Federal funding for education===
{{further|Elementary and Secondary Education Act}}

Johnson, whose own ticket out of poverty was a public education in Texas, fervently believed that education was an essential component of the [[American dream]], especially for minorities who endured poor facilities and tight-fisted local budgets.<ref>{{harvnb|Bernstein|1996|pp=183–213}}</ref> He made education the top priority of the Great Society agenda, with an emphasis on helping poor children. After the 1964 landslide brought in many new liberal Congressmen, Johnson launched a legislative effort that took the name of the [[Elementary and Secondary Education Act]] (ESEA) of 1965. The bill sought to double federal spending on education from $4&nbsp;billion to $8&nbsp;billion;<ref>{{harvnb|Dallek|1998|pp=195–198}}</ref> with considerable facilitating by the White House, it passed the House by a vote of 263 to 153 on March 26, and then it remarkably passed without a change in the Senate, by 73 to 8, without going through the usual conference committee. This was a historic accomplishment by the president, with the billion-dollar bill passing as introduced just 87&nbsp;days before.<ref>{{harvnb|Dallek|1998|pp=200–201}}</ref>

Although ESEA solidified Johnson's support among K-12 teachers' unions, neither the Higher Education Act nor the new endowments mollified the college professors and students growing increasingly uneasy with the war in Vietnam.<ref>{{harvnb|Woods|2006|pp=563–568}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Dallek|1998|pp=196–202}}</ref> Johnson's second major education program was the [[Higher Education Act of 1965]], which focused on funding for lower-income students. In 1967, Johnson signed the [[Public Broadcasting Act of 1967|Public Broadcasting Act]] to create educational television programs to supplement broadcast networks.

In 1965, Johnson set up the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]] and the [[National Endowment for the Arts]], to support the study of literature, history, and law, and arts such as music, painting, and sculpture (as the [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]] once did).<ref>{{cite web |title=National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, 20 US Code § 952 |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/952|website=Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute|access-date=February 18, 2017}}</ref>