- Dwight D. Eisenhower: After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, he signed the National Defense Education Act, which set aside $1 billion in grants and loans to improve science and mathematics instruction in both schools and colleges.
- Gerald R. Ford: A program advanced by President Ford to encourage schools to teach students how to convert standard measurements to metric made little headway in changing the country’s system of measures.
Bill Clinton: Agencies from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Health and Human Services provide schools with curriculum materials or the money to buy texts or to design their own courses.