In April 1965 Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the first large-scale aid program to elementary and secondary schools. As part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program, the act granted $1.3 billion to school districts in proportion to the number of children from low-income families in the district. Most of the funding went to schools in inner cities and impoverished rural areas. Public schools could also supervise the distribution of funds to private and parochial schools. The act provided federal money for the purchase of library books, textbooks, and other printed material. It also provided funding for dropout prevention programs, state education departments, and other innovative education programs.
