Fifty years ago Sunday, in a ceremony at his alma mater, Southwest Texas State College, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Higher Education Act of 1965 into law.
The signing was supposed to have taken place in front of Old Main, a building that the president had cleaned as an undergraduate janitor. But rain forced the event into a campus gymnasium.
The conditions didn’t dampen Mr. Johnson’s enthusiasm that day. He told attendees they were "witnessing a historic moment" when higher education would become available to everyone, regardless of family income.
"This legislation passed by this Congress will swing open a new door for the young people of America," he said of the act, which expanded federal financial support to needy students and colleges. "It means that a high-school senior anywhere in this great land of ours can apply to any college or any university in any of the 50 states and not be turned away because his family is poor."
Five decades, billions of dollars, and several reauthorizations later, it’s clear that the Higher Education Act has helped democratize American higher education. Since the act became law, the share of high-school graduates who go on to college has increased from roughly half to nearly two-thirds. In 1965 fewer than six million students were enrolled in public, private, or for-profit colleges; today more than 20 million are enrolled.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Higher-Education-Act-Just/234110