The House approved a bill last week that would name the Department of Education’s Washington headquarters after Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Mr. Johnson, who was president from 1963 to 1969, made education a key element in his War on Poverty.
Responding to President Johnson’s proposals, Congress passed more than 60 education bills, according to Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, and the sponsor of the bill to name the Education Department building on Maryland Avenue, S.W., in Washington.
President Johnson’s legislative victories include the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Higher Education Act of 1965, and the 1964 law that included the Head Start program, Rep. Green said.
“Before Johnson,” Rep. Green said in a speech supporting the bill, “educational opportunity in America was not a national priority, as it continues to be today for both our parties, including current President George W. Bush.”
The bill passed March 6 by a voice vote.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
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