Higher Education Act
The Higher Education Act (HEA) is a significant piece of legislation in the United States that was enacted on November 9, 1965, under President Lyndon B. Johnson. It aimed to enhance educational resources at colleges and universities and provide financial assistance to students pursuing post-secondary education. The act emerged during a transformative period when education was viewed as a critical element in addressing poverty and promoting social equality, aligning with Johnson's Great Society initiatives.
The HEA is organized into eight titles, each addressing different aspects of higher education funding and support. Notably, it established programs for urban land-grant institutions, library development, and support for historically Black colleges and universities. One of its most impactful provisions restructured federal student aid, introducing grants, loans, and work-study programs that significantly expanded access to education. By the 1970s, federal aid had dramatically increased, with millions of students relying on various forms of financial assistance.
The act also played a role in promoting educational equity, enabling compliance with antidiscrimination policies across educational institutions. Over the years, it has been amended multiple times to adapt to the changing landscape of higher education, further solidifying its importance in shaping access and equity within the U.S. educational system.
Higher Education Act
Landmark legislation passed in 1965 that greatly increased the federal role in higher education as a keystone to the Great Society and War on Poverty.
Origins and History
In 1960, the federal government supported about 9 percent of U.S. higher education funding, mostly through the G.I. Bill, the National Defense Education Act of 1958 (NDEA), and various social security programs. One billion dollars went to support land-grant universities, veterans, science education, libraries, and college housing in 1961. That year, President John F. Kennedy introduced a bill to support $2.8 billion in faculty loans and $892 million in merit-and need-based loans to students at four-year institutions; it was defeated.
By 1965, the climate had changed. Both President Lyndon B. Johnson (a former teacher) and the heavily Democratic Congress considered education key to their antipoverty and Great Society programs. The bill passed the House by 368 to 22 and the Senate by 79 to 3. Johnson signed the Higher Education Act at his old college in San Marcos, Texas, on November 9, 1965, to “strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in post-secondary and higher education.”
The act’s fifty-two pages are divided into eight titles. The first title allotted $25 million to establish “urban land-grant” programs of community service, including continuing education. The second appropriated $50 million for building up library and media collections and training specialists. Title III set aside $55 million to help “developing institutions” largely southern African American schools that were “struggling for survival and are isolated from the main currents of academic life.” Potential faculty were to be encouraged with special fellowships, and “cooperative” partnerships with stronger northern schools were also envisaged.
Title IV was revolutionary in its restructuring of federal aid to students. NDEA needs-tested loans were extended and complemented by an additional $70 million in aid to schools for Educational Opportunity Grants to undergraduates “of exceptional financial need,” insurance for $700 million in commercial loans (to be doubled two years hence), and $129 million for work-study programs, an extension of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.
Title V sought to improve the preparation of teachers and established the National Teacher Corps, an analog to President Kennedy’s Peace Corps, “to strengthen the educational opportunities available to children in areas having concentrations of low-income families.” Experienced teachers and inexperienced teacher-interns were to be enrolled and sent to these areas to augment teaching staffs. The title also approved $40 million for forty-five hundred fellowships to support training for school teachers. Title VI authorized $40 million for classroom televisions and training of media specialists. Title VII expanded the funding of the Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, while Title VIII prohibited “federal control of education.”
Impact
General aid increased tenfold between 1964 and 1971, and by 1970, two million students, or one in four, were receiving federal aid. The triad of grants, loans, and work-study all enormously expanded remains the principal platform of federal aid to students. Though they had played an insignificant role in 1965, education lobbyists soon became a powerful force behind the ever-increasing flow of funds, and Congress eagerly took over where the president had left off. Through rules for student funding, the federal government could now gain compliance with antidiscrimination policies, even from private schools. The 1968 amendments added six new programs including aid to “disadvantaged students” and the Law School Clinical Experience Program and appropriations of $2.46 billion: more than twice the amount Johnson requested.
Additional Information
For further background on this act, see H. D. Graham’s The Uncertain Triumph (1984).