The Original ESEA: Only 32 Pages
On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the latest revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) into law.
This latest ESEA version, called the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA),is 1,061 pages long and will replace the 670-page No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).
ESEA has become really complicated, and through it, the federal government has made standardized testing its centerpiece and has shaped the document in favor of market-based education reform.
The original ESEA (April 11,1965) was only 32 pages long and was itself an amended version of Public Law 81-874 (“Impact Aid”), an effort for the federal government to assist public education costs that were impacted by federal defense. (Read more about PL 81-874 here.)
ESEA of 1965 was originally comprised of six titles (the primary one was Title I, ten pages long):
Title I: Financial Assistance to Local Education Agencies for the Education of Children of Low-income Families and Extension of Public Law 874, Eighty-first Congress
Title II: School Library Resources, Textbooks, and Other Instructional Materials
Title III: Supplementary Educational Centers and Services
Title IV: Educational Research and Training
Title V: Grants to Strengthen State Departments of Education
Title VI: General Provisions
Near the end of the 1965 ESEA document is the following:
FEDERAL CONTROL OF EDUCATION PROHIBITED SEC. 604. Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system.
Arne Duncan has certainly pushed the envelope on this one.
By November 1966, ESEA was amended to include “Education of Handicapped The Original ESEA: Only 32 Pages | deutsch29: