In the 1960s and today, children under 18 are the most likely Americans to live in poverty. While many of the initiatives launched under President Lyndon B. Johnson’s massive social programs were designed to reduce poverty through education and child health, wide disparities still exist in the opportunities and outcomes of children in poverty—and differences in the demographic makeup of poor children challenge policymakers’ ability to address those disparities today.
Sources: The National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, the Newseum, the Southern Education Foundation, the U.S. Education Department Library, Legacies of the War on Poverty, ed. by Martha J. Bailey and Sheldon Danziger (2013), Urban Education, by Diane Ravitch (1974), The Other America, by Michael Harrington (1963), Restoring Opportunity by Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane (2014).
Reporting & Analysis: Sarah D. Sparks
Producers: Megan Garner, Swikar Patel
A version of this article appeared in the January 22, 2014 edition of Education Week