¹ Guthrie, James, “A Political Case History: Passage of the ESEA,” Phi Delta Kappan 49, no. 6 (Feb. 1968), 302–6Google Scholar; McAndrews, Lawrence and Scott, Kathryn, “Full Circle: Elementary and Secondary Education Politics and Policies of Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton,” Social Science Journal 39, no. 1 (2002), 53–64 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Eidenberg, Eugene and Morey, Roy, An Act of Congress: The Legislative Process and the Making of Education Policy (New York: W. W. Norton, 1969)Google Scholar.

² Guthrie, “A Political Case History,” 305.

³ Ravitch, Diane, The Troubled Crusade: American Education 1945–1980 (New York: Basic Books, 1983), 148 Google Scholar.

⁴ Graham, Hugh D., The Uncertain Triumph: Federal Education Policy in the Kennedy and Johnson Years (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

⁵ Graham, The Uncertain Triumph, xx-xxi.

⁶ Ibid., 77.

⁷ Davies, Gareth, See Government Grow: Education Politics from Johnson to Reagan (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007), 31 Google Scholar.

⁸ Urban, Wayne, More Than Science and Sputnik: The National Defense Education Act of 1958 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010)Google Scholar.

⁹ For two other examples of the presidential entrepreneurship interpretation, see McGuinn, Patrick, No Child Left Behind and the Transformation of Federal Education Policy, 1965–2005 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006), 30 Google Scholar; and Rhodes, Jesse, An Education in Politics: The Origins and Evolution of No Child Left Behind (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012), 32 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ Congress has usually been interpreted as an obstacle to general education aid in this period, not a source of legislative entrepreneurship. See, for example, Bendiner, Robert, Obstacle Course on Capitol Hill (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964)Google Scholar; Munger, Frank and Fenno, Richard, National Politics and Aid to Education (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1962)Google Scholar; and Price, Hugh, “Race, Religion, and the Rules Committee,” in The Uses of Power: 7 Cases in American Politics, ed. Westin, Alan and Price, Hugh (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962)Google Scholar.

¹¹ Two fine histories of the NDEA are Urban, More Than Science and Sputnik; and Clowse, Barbara Barksdale, Brainpower for the Cold War: The Sputnik Crisis and National Defense Education Act of 1958 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981)Google Scholar.

¹² For more detailed information on the failures of aid-to-education bills in the 1940–1963 era, see Graham, The Uncertain Triumph; Eidenberg and Morey, An Act of Congress; Munger and Fenno, National Politics; Bendiner, Obstacle Course; Price, “Race, Religion, and the Rules Committee”; Kantor, Harvey, “Education, Social Reform, and the State: ESEA and Federal Education Policy in the 1960s,” American Journal of Education 100, no. 1 (Nov. 1991), 47–83 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sundquist, James L., Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1968)Google Scholar; Jeffrey, Susan Roy, Education for Children of the Poor: A Study of the Origins and Implementation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1978)Google Scholar; and Meranto, Philip, The Politics of Federal Aid to Education in 1965: A Study in Political Innovation (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1967)Google Scholar.

¹³ Davies, Gareth, “Education Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs—Race, Religion and Reds,” in Conservatism and American Political Development, ed. Glenn, Brian J. and Teles, Steven M. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; and Munger and Fenno, National Politics, chap. 3.

¹⁴ For examples of HEL obstructionism, see Munger and Fenno, National Politics, 107–36.

¹⁵ Johnson, Lyndon, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963–1969 (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971), 209 Google Scholar; and Munger and Fenno, National Politics.

¹⁶ Price, “Race, Religion, and the Rules Committee.”

¹⁷ In 1964, Bendiner wrote “[general aid] may happen, but it is not a good bet,” Obstacle Course, 36. Similar pessimism can be found in Fenno and Munger, National Politics, 184–85.

¹⁸ Graham, The Uncertain Triumph, 25.

¹⁹ For more on Johnson's education and early life, see “Lyndon Johnson's School Days,” Time, April 21, 1965, 66–70; Caro, Robert, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982)Google Scholar; Goodwin, Doris K., Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991)Google Scholar; and Rulon, Philip Reed, “The Education of Lyndon Baines Johnson,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 12, no. 3 (July 1982), 400–406 Google Scholar.

²⁰ Lyndon Johnson, “Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union,” Jan. 4, 1965, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=26907.

²¹ Lyndon Johnson, “Special Message to Congress: ‘Toward Full Educational Opportunity,’” Jan. 12, 1965, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=27448.

²² Ibid.

²³ Johnson, The Vantage Point, 209.

²⁴ The exact Democratic advantage was 295–140 in the House and 68–32 in the Senate.

²⁵ For contrasting valuations of the Gardner Task Force, see Davies, See Government Grow, 32; and Graham, The Uncertain Triumph, chap. 3.

²⁶ Report of the President's Task Force on Education, Nov. 1964, Task Forces, Task Force Reports subject file, box 1, LBJ Presidential Library (hereafter LBJL).

²⁷ Between 1940 and 1964, the House had only ever passed general-aid legislation once. The Senate had done so eight times.

²⁸ Robert Hunter to Douglass Cater, memo, Dec. 24, 1964, White House Central Files (WHCF), Federal Aid subject file (FA 2), box 7, LBJL.

²⁹ Reeves, Andrée E., Congressional Committee Chairmen: Three Who Made an Evolution (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1993), 4–5 Google Scholar.

³⁰ Munger and Fenno, National Politics, 122. For more on Barden's leadership style, see Reeves, Congressional Committee Chairmen, 20–75.

³¹ Congresswoman Edith Green believed that it was Sam Rayburn who principally “made it [the ESEA] possible” because he placed so many pro-aid members on HEL. See Edith Green, Oral History, Aug. 23, 1985, 22, LBJL.

³² For more on Powell's leadership, see Reeves, Congressional Committee Chairmen, 72–140.

³³ For more on HEL membership and voting patterns, see Reeves, Congressional Committee Chairmen, 79–102.

³⁴ Donald Damron, “The Contributions of Carl D. Perkins on Higher Education Legislation, 1948–1984” (PhD diss., Middle Tennessee State University, 1990), 103.

³⁵ Ibid., 1.

³⁶ Larry O'Brien called Perkins's spirited leadership and celerity “remarkable.” See Larry O'Brien to Lyndon Johnson, memo, March 8, 1965, WHCF, Subject File Legislation (LE), box 38, LBJL.

³⁷ Hamilton, Charles V., Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.: The Political Biography of an American Dilemma (New York: Atheneum, 1991), 8 Google Scholar.

³⁸ Ibid.

³⁹ Powell, Adam Clayton Jr., Adam by Adam: The Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (New York: Dial Press, 1971), 70–72 Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ For more on these scandals, see Hamilton, Adam Clayton Powell, 407–78; Reeves, Congressional Committee Chairmen, 76–109.

⁴¹ This was a tactic Powell frequently used to bottle up legislation. Powell had a notoriously high rate of absenteeism throughout his career; see “Mary McGrory, “Powell on the House Floor: It's a Sometime Thing,” Washington Star (Washington, DC), Sept. 30, 1966, box 358Google ScholarPubMed, Edith Green Archives.

⁴² Goldman, Eric, The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969), 302 Google Scholar.

⁴³ Executive Session Minutes, Feb. 25, 1965 to March 2, 1965, Papers of the House of Representatives 89th Cong., box 28, National Archives Center for Legislative Archives.

⁴⁴ Powell, Adam by Adam, 74.

⁴⁵ Hamilton, Adam Clayton Powell, 380–85. For more on Powell's civil rights activities, see Hickey, Neil and Edwin, Ed, Adam Clayton Powell and the Politics of Race (New York: Fleet Publishing, 1965)Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ LBJ: Conversation WH7007–6503.01, March 1, 1965, Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJL.

⁴⁷ Ibid.

⁴⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰ In hindsight, it is doubtful that Powell would have ever taken his actions far enough to defeat the bill. According to his biographers and those who knew him, Powell was acutely aware that his reputation as a progressive reformer would inevitably be based on the prolificacy of his committee, and his HEL legislative record was a huge part of his identity.

⁵¹ “House Rules Enhance Majority Rule,” CQ Almanac 1965 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1966), 585–90Google Scholar.

⁵² Naomi V. Ross, “Congresswoman Edith Green on Federal Aid to Schools and Colleges” (PhD diss., Pennsylvania State University, 1980).

⁵³ Kaptur, Marcy, Women of Congress: A Twentieth-Century Odyssey (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1996), 111 Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Gayle Tunnell, “Edith Green: ‘A Smiling Cobra’ or ‘Mrs. Education’?” Washington Post, Aug. 9, 1970, 21.

⁵⁵ Norman Miller, “Rep. Edith Green, A Bareknuckle Fighter,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 3, 1969, 18.

⁵⁶ Tunnell, “Edith Green.”

⁵⁷ LBJ: Conversation WH7007–6503.01.

⁵⁸ Miller, “Rep. Edith Green.”

⁵⁹ Bill Moyers to Larry O'Brien, memo, Jan. 13, 1965, Aides, Moyers subject file, box 1, LBJL.

⁶⁰ Ibid. Moyers was skeptical of Green's sincerity, adding in his memo a parenthetical “(whatever that means)” after the word “support.”

⁶¹ Executive Session Minutes, Feb. 25, 1965 to March 2, 1965; “Testimony of the Honorable Edith Green before the House Rules Committee,” March 22, 1965, Edith Green Papers, Series B: Committee and Subcommittee Files, 1955–1974, box 283, Education and Labor Committee, Special Subcommittee on Education, Mss 1424, Oregon Historical Society Research Library (hereafter Edith Green Papers). Green also testified before the House Rules Committee and requested that it intervene to retard the bill or find some way to amend it.

⁶² Edith Green to Raymond Larsen, March 9, 1965, box 238, Edith Green Papers.

⁶³ Edith Green to colleague, March 25, 1965, box 371, Edith Green Papers.

⁶⁴ 89th Cong., 1st Sess., Cong. Rec. 111 (March 25, 1965) (Rep. O'Hara speaking on H.R. 2362).

⁶⁵ LBJ: Conversation WH7024–6503.02, March 6, 1965, Presidential Recordings, LBJL; and LBJ: Conversation WH7174–6503.14, March 27, 1965, Presidential Recordings, LBJL.

⁶⁶ Yvonne Franklin, “NW Catholics Object to School Aid bill,” Oregonian, March 14, 1965, 16. While it is not possible to know exactly how many letters Green was actually receiving, it does appear that she was receiving more letters than her office could handle, as there was a noticeable lag in responding to her constituents during this period, with Green beginning many of her letters with an apology for the delay. Several hundred of these letters still remain.

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ House leadership, fearing defections from Jewish representatives, had approached Celler days earlier and asked if he would be willing to respond to any potential judicial review amendment. Eidenberg and Morey, An Act of Congress, 124–5.

⁶⁹ 89th Cong., 1st Sess., Cong. Rec. 111 (March 26, 1965) (Rep. Celler speaking on H.R. 2362).

⁷⁰ Samuel Halperin to Douglass Cater, memo, March 22, 1965, WHCF, Legislation subject file (LE), box 38, LBJL.

⁷¹ Douglass Cater to Lyndon Johnson, memo, March 30, 1965, WHCF, Legislation subject file (LE), box 38, LBJL. This appears to have been an empty threat, as Green reported that she had never been aware of these threats.

⁷² Yvonne Franklin, “Gentle Lady from Oregon Loses School Aid Bill Fight,” Oregonian, March 19, 1965, 29.

⁷³ For a clear statement of these principles, see Edith Green and Walter Reuther, “Education and the Public Good: The Federal Role in Education” (Cambridge, MA: Distributed for the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University by Harvard University Press, 1964).

⁷⁴ Edith Green to Edward Soucek, April 19, 1965, box 283, Edith Green Papers.

⁷⁵ “House Republicans Offer a Tax-Credit School bill,” New York Times, March 9, 1965, 15.

⁷⁶ Statement of House Democrats on the Republican Bill, press release, March 8, 1965, Aides, Cater subject file, box 22, LBJL.

⁷⁷ “Staff Analysis: Education Incentive Act,” box 309, Edith Green Papers.

⁷⁸ Marjorie Hunter, “House Approves School-Aid Bill; G.O.P. Is Rebuffed,” New York Times, March 27, 1965, 1.

⁷⁹ Drukman, Mason, Wayne Morse: A Political Biography (Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1997), 54 Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Ibid., 371.

⁸¹ Ibid., 388.

⁸² Jeffrey, Education for Children, 69. See also Francis Keppel, Oral History, April 21, 1969, Interview I, LBJL, 8.

⁸³ Wayne Morse to Jennings Randolph Jan. 6, 1965, Wayne L. Morse Papers, 1919–1969, General Education, 1961–1965, General Education, 1961–1965, box B25 General Ed, University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives (hereafter Morse Papers).

⁸⁴ LBJ: Conversation WH7304–6504.01, 1 April 1965, Presidential Recordings, LBJL.

⁸⁵ Keppel, Oral History, LBJL.

⁸⁶ Marjorie Hunter, “President Scored on School Aid Bill,” New York Times, April 8, 1965, 14.

⁸⁷ Marjorie Hunter, “Debate on School Aid: Democrats Concede Bill's Imperfections, but Hope to Improve on it Next Year,” New York Times, April 2, 1965, 22.

⁸⁸ Wayne Morse to William Proxmire, March 8, 1965, box H55, S288, Provide for education of children of needy families, Morse Papers. Morse took his duties as floor manager seriously, telling one constituent that in that position he felt “an ethical obligation to try to handle the bill in such manner as to assure its passage.” See Wayne Morse to Leo Smith, March 27, 1965, box B31, Schools, 1961–1968, Morse Papers.

⁸⁹ Hubert Humphrey to Wayne Morse, April 19, 1965, box H55, S288, Provide for education of children of needy families, Morse Papers.

⁹⁰ For an example of this argument, see Guthrie, “A Political Case History.”

⁹¹ Davies, “Education Policy from the New Deal.”

⁹² House Report on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965: Minority Views (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1965)Google Scholar.

⁹³ Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965: Hearings on H.R. 2362, Hearings Before the General Subcomm. on Education of the Comm. on Education and Labor, 89th Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 22, 1965 (statement of Charles Goodell), 145.

⁹⁴ Johnson, “Special Message to Congress.”

⁹⁵ Hearings Before the General Subcomm. on Education, Jan. 22, 1965 (statement of Francis Keppel), 143.

⁹⁶ Address to the Junior Chamber of Commerce in Dayton, Ohio, Feb. 4, 1965, Speech File, box O17, Nov. 22, 1964-June 25, 1965, Morse Papers.

⁹⁷ The figures 14.6 percent and 6.8 million are derived from the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Reports, the Official Catholic Directory, and the National Center for Education Statistics. Contact the author for more details about these calculations.

⁹⁸ McAndrews and Scott, “Full Circle,” 57.

⁹⁹ Fred Fishman, letter to the editor, New York Times, March 29, 1965, 32.

¹⁰⁰ Jewish interests regularly wrote to Green and Morse in this period urging defeat of the legislation, and the American Jewish Congress filed a judicial challenge the day after the ESEA was signed.

¹⁰¹ Carl Degler, “Aid for Parochial Schools—A Question of Education, Not Religion,” New York Times, Jan. 31, 1965, SM11.

¹⁰² Chicago Study on Catholic Education, report from Carnegie Corporation Quarterly, April 1965, WHCF, ED subject file, box 1, LBJL.

¹⁰³ Degler, “Aid for Parochial Schools.”

¹⁰⁴ Davies, See Government Grow, 32.

¹⁰⁵ Hunter, “Debate on School Aid.”

¹⁰⁶ “The Head of the Class” Time 86, no. 16 (1965), 70–79 Google ScholarPubMed. For more on Keppel's role in education policy formulation, see Christine Dietrich, “Francis Keppel and Lyndon Johnson, Unique Collaborators in the Struggle for Federal Aid” (PhD diss., Lehigh University, 1994); and Bailey, Stephen and Mosher, Edith, ESEA: The Office of Education Administers a Law (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1968)Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁷ Douglass Cater to Lyndon Johnson, memo, Dec. 19, 1965, WHCF, Federal Aid subject file (FA 2), box 7, LBJL.

¹⁰⁸ Ibid.

¹⁰⁹ Larry O'Brien, Oral History, July 24, 1986, 47, LBJL.

¹¹⁰ Cater to Johnson, memo, Dec. 19, 1965.

¹¹¹ For more about these legislative failures, see Eidenberg and Morey, An Act of Congress, 18–22.

¹¹² Robert Hunter to Douglass Cater, memo, Dec. 24, 1964, WHCF, Subject File Federal Aid (FA 2), box 7, LBJL.

¹¹³ For examples of this argument, see Guthrie, “A Political Case History,” 302; Ravitch, The Troubled Crusade, 148; McGuinn, No Child Left Behind, 29; and Rhodes, An Education in Politics, 31.

¹¹⁴ Edith Green to Martin Thielen, April 2, 1965, box 283, Edith Green Papers.

¹¹⁵ Clarence Mitchell to Wayne Morse, Jan. 27, 1965, box H55, S288, Provide for education of children of needy families, Morse Papers.

¹¹⁶ Marta Tienda, “Public Education and the Social Contract” (presentation, Thirteen Annual AERA Brown Lecture in Education Research, Washington, DC, Oct. 20, 2016), http://www.windrosemedia.com/windstream/aerabrown/index.php.

¹¹⁷ Lyndon Johnson, “Remarks in Johnson City, Tex., Upon Signing the Elementary and Secondary Education Bill,” April 11, 1965, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=26887&st=&st1=.

¹¹⁸ Marjorie Hunter, “Senate Passes School Aid Bill with No Change,” New York Times, April 10, 1965, 1.