President Johnson signs the Higher Education Act, creating Pell Grants and Stafford Loans

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Higher Education Act (HEA) at his alma mater, Southwest Texas State College (now Texas State University). The landmark legislation creates Title IV student assistance programs, including Pell Grants (federal grants for low-income students) and the Guaranteed Student Loan Program (later known as Stafford Loans). The act increases federal funding to universities, establishes scholarships, and creates the National Teacher Corps. The HEA becomes the major law governing federal student aid and is reauthorized nine times over the following decades. Johnson calls education 'the key to the future' and the legislation becomes centerpiece of his Great Society domestic agenda.