LBJ Signs Elementary and Secondary Education Act Creating Title I Funding for High-Poverty Schools

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) on April 11, 1965, at a former one-room schoolhouse near Stonewall, Texas. The law authorized roughly $1.3 billion for fiscal year 1966, with about $1.06 billion routed through Title I to school districts serving high concentrations of low-income children. ESEA was the first large-scale federal aid program for elementary and secondary schools and tied funding to formulas based on county poverty counts.