The Higher Education Act of 1965

Higher Education Act HEA) of 1965 was signed into law on November 8 of that year. Before this time, higher education was a luxury that could be afforded only by the rich and the privileged, hence mainly by the white upper-class population of the United States. President Johnson understood the need to provide lower and middle income families with the opportunity for higher education as well. This would not only serve an empowerment function for the beneficiaries of the Act, but would also be beneficial for the manpower and employment sectors of the country as a whole. By providing higher education to middle and lower income students, the country can make use of otherwise latent and lost talents in order to uplift both the community and the country itself. As such, the Act was particularly important for financing higher education since the 1940s.

The 1930s and 1940s saw a wide range of political movements and change. Tertiary education for example did not offer equal opportunities for further study. While women were successful in gaining the right to vote, Negroes were still heavily discriminated against in terms of education. In fact, they were given only a one-fifteenth portion of the education opportunity generally offered to American youngsters. The Great Depression however stimulated federal initiatives to help stimulate the economy (Cervantes et al., 2005).

The National Youth Administration for example provided needy students with the means to enroll in tertiary education institutions by helping them to obtain part-time jobs in clerical and maintenance work.. Lyndon B. Johnson, who would later become President, was the Texas director of the organization from 1935-1927. The importance of such help to promising academic students is emphasized by the outstanding nature of graduates helped in this way. Examples are Richard M. Nixon, Arthur Miller, and Jackie Robinson among others.

The 1940's were a significant time for the NYA, as emphasis necessarily became focused upon the war effort during World War II. General job creation made way for defense training. After the war, the effort changed focus again, to help war veterans reenter the job market. In 1942, the Government, then led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, asked educators to investigate the matter of educating service men and women. Like Johnson during the 1960's, Roosevelt's aim was to maximize human resources, while specifically helping military personnel resume their civilian lives. The committee recommended several funding initiatives to help with this effort. After President Roosevelt's death, Harry Truman assumed office in 1945, during which he developed the President's Commission on Higher Education to investigate and advance the state of general higher education in the country. However, Truman soon recognized that the post-war status of the country was of greater concern and left the Committee's recommendations by the wayside to pay further attention to the education of war veterans reentering civilian life. The result was the "GI Bill" of 1944. This is significant, as it was the first true effort by the Government to provide financial aid to prospective students (Cervantes et al., 2005).

Another very significant consequence of both the War and the subsequent Bill was the empowerment of African-American students. Many African-Americans who were otherwise deprived of education were allowed into tertiary institutions under the GI Bill. In 1954, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded, which had further significant impacts upon the effort to empower and educate minority groups in the United States (Cervantes et al., 2005).

While a strong middle class was encouraged by the ability of war veterans to enter high-paying careers, there were still social problems in terms of higher education. African-American people were not legislatively discriminated against in entering tertiary education. Nevertheless, the social climate was still very much one of segregation and a lack of both funding and opportunity for such students (Graham, 2006). This was particularly the case in the South. African-American enrollment nonetheless expanded significantly and Medgar Evers for example completed his studies successfully to become a civil activist.

After Truman, President Johnson recognized the need to do more in terms of general higher education. While previous federal programs were very focused on specific sectors of society, these did not encompass the needs of society as a whole. The problems of poverty and lower-income families for example remained, and where no longer related to the war effort.

The President articulated these needs as he regarded them in January 1965, when he delivered his education message. Not only, according to the President, was there a need among lower and middle-income families, but small and less developed colleges were also in the need of assistance for their development and an improvement in the education standard.. Furthermore, additional and improved library resources were needed to improve the standard of higher education in general (Cervantes et al., 2005). Poverty and community development furthermore needed to be addressed by legislation. President Johnson acknowledged previous Government efforts by appointing former President Truman as chairman for his education advisory committee. As seen above, Truman was concerned with education, but his efforts in this regard were shaped by the war. Johnson no longer had this problem and could concentrate fully on general upliftment and human resources in the country.

It is interesting to note that the President personally played a very significant role in the successful entry of the Act into United States law. He for example met with bankers who were unwilling to provide loans to students with no financial history or collateral. The President however emphasized the various ways in which this would be beneficial not only for the banks in future financial terms, but also for the country as a whole. Of course the loans would be granted to students showing specific academic promise, but without the finances to pay for further education. Obtaining this education would provide them with the opportunity to enter the workplace at a higher level than would otherwise be the case. Banks would then receive their funding back with interest, while having empowered individuals to create a better workforce and therefore a better country. Hence the President not only appealed to the bankers' financial logic, but also to their sense of civic duty (Cervantes et al., 2005). This was however only the beginning of a long and involved process to establish the Higher Education Act of 1965.