Rough+Draft

Lyndon Baines Johnson, Texan Democrat, was victorious in the 1964 presidental election against Republican Barry Goldwater. Johnson wanted to create a society in which the people would have less troubles. "The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice," he declared on May 22nd, 1964 at a commencement address at the University of Michigan (Ayers, Schulzinger, dela Teja, and Gray White 897-899). Johnson's opponent, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, was known as the "Arizona Archangel" because he wanted to abolish the progressive income tax, programs such as Social Security, and public works (Schultz and Tishler). America did not allow Goldwater to take office, and so the Great Society became a highly notable attempt for an improved way of living. While some Americans believe that the Great Society was not a lasting success, others see the ways in which it was successful.

//"//The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents," Johnson said. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was adopted on April 11, 1965 to provide help to school systems based on the number of students from low-income homes that are attending the school (Ayers, Schulzinger, dela Teja, and Gray White 898). The funds from this program are used to further professional development, improve the quality of instructional materials and resources, and promote parental involvement ("Elementary and Secondary Education Act"). In 1967, a program for bilingual education was introduced into this act to assist immigrants with their academic education while they are still learning English. Also passed in 1965, the Higher Education Act provided scholarships and low-interest loans for students attending college. When the government became helpful in allowing even the poor to get a full education, America could prove that education should be determined by ability and ambition, not money. America began to educate all of its citizens, and these educated people helped America to be "the world's leading industrial, technological, communications and military power today" (Califano).

The Higher Education Act is considered a success. Today, about sixty percent of full-time undergraduate students receive federal financial aid because of this program or its progeny (Califano). Since people can afford school, they can get a better education which could lead to them finding ways to improve the country.The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is a growing success. Current President Barack Obama recently revised the act so that schools will "prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and create accountability systems that measure student growth toward meeting the goal that all children graduate and succeed in college." ("Reauthorization"). The original act had the potential to be successful, but the recent revision will hopefully lead to even better results.

Other programs were passed to improve the American society. In 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act was established. This act created programs to fight poverty such as Job Corps, which offers free education and vocational training to people who are sixteen to twenty-four years old ("Job Corps"). It also led to the creation of Volunteers in Service to America, or VISTA ("Volunteers"). Also established in 1964 was the Tax Reduction Act, which cut income tax rates up to thirty percent and reduced corporate tax rates by about five percent. The greatest cuts went to the lower-income Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in housing, employment, and any other public accomodations. It ordered the federal government to enforce desegregation (Ayers, Schulzinger, dela Teja, and Gray White 898). The Wilderness Prevention Act protected over nine million acres of national forest from being destroyed. The amendments to the Social Security Act in 1965 established Medicare, a health care program for people over the age of 65, and Medicaid, a program that provides free health care for poor people. The Voting Rights Act ended the requirement for voters to pass literacy tests and allowed federal supervision when voters register. The Water Quality Act required the states to clean up their rivers and lakes. In 1966, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act established safety standards for automobiles. The 1967 Air Quality Act set guidelines on air pollution and increased the federal government's power to enforce clean-air standards (Ayers, Schulzinger, dela Teja, and Gray White 898).

The Economic Opportunity Act was repealed in 1891. The act in general was not successful, because it did not "eliminate the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty", considering America needed the funding to go to the Vietnam War ("Economic"). However, some of its programs such as Job Corps and VISTA, now AmeriCorps VISTA, are still in act today. The goals of the Tax Reduction Act were to "raise personal incomes, increase consumption, and increase capital investments"("Revenue"). Investment grew at a annual rate of approximately six percent between 1962 and 1969, which was an improvement from the three percent annual growth rate of investment between 1959 and 1962. After the tax reforms were repealed, the annual growth rate decreased to a little over three percent between 1969 and 1976 (Garfield). Therefore, the Tax Reduction Act can be considered a success of this time period. The Wilderness Protection Act currently protects 107,436,608 acres of land from human development, so “the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man" ("Wilderness Act") which is what the act was aiming for. Medicare and Medicaid are still a huge part in the American health care system. According to a study, "life expectancy at age 65 increased from 14.3 years in 1960 to 17.8 years in 1998 and the chronically disabled elderly population declined from 24.9 percent in 1982 to 21.3 percent in 1994" (Shakir, Terkel, Corley, Carlile, and Millhiser) because of Medicare. This means that it took a while for improvement to happen, but there was still improvement. Over thirty-six million Americans received benefits from Medicaid in 1995. Three decades after the program started, people were still getting help from Medicaid. The Voting Rights Act is still applied today. Some Americans are uneducated but are still smart. Because of the Voting Rights Act, these Americans are able to vote, and they can make a big impact in the election. Also, Americans can vote regardless of their race, which made a great impact in the recent election in which President Obama was running. The Water Quality Act created many jobs for the people to help keep the rivers and lakes clean. It is hard to say whether or not the act has been successful because some bodies of water have stayed very clean while others have not. Since the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act was the reason for shatter-resistant windshields, seat belts, barriers that separate oncoming traffic lanes, guardrails, and other things that increase safety, the motor-vehicle-related death rates decreased by 1970. This act continues to lead to more laws that make the roads safer such as the law for driving while intoxicated, the enforcement of seatbelts, and motorcycle helmet laws. From 1982 to 2011, the death of drivers because of alcohol has decreased thirty-nine percent. The rate of pedestrian fatalities decreased by forty-one percent between 1975 and 2011. By 1997, the rate of the use of seat belts rose to sixty-eight percent. These successes branch back to the enactment of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The Air Quality Act was not much of a success. Only about thirty Air Quality Regions were assigned instead of the expected one hundred. Many states failed to develop ways to keep the air clean.

Many programs within the Great Society were successful, and some programs led to long-lasting success. One hundred eighty-one of 200 requested bills were passed from 1965-1966. However, the Great Society itself was not successful in the way Lyndon Johnson wanted it to be. Poverty still exists today and will continue to exist. In the 1960s, the income of young black families had risen more than sixty percent, but by 1992 these families had half of the income of their predecessors ("Great Society"). From 1963 until 1970, the number of Americans living below the poverty line decreased from twenty-two percent to about thirteen percent. This was the most dramatic decline over such a brief period in this century. Though this was successful, it does not meet the goal of the Great Society, which was to demand "an end to poverty". And though high school graduation rates peaked in 1969 with seventy-seven percent of the year's students graduating with a diploma, eight million adult Americans today have not finished five years of school and about twenty million have not finished eight years of school. About fifty-four million adult Americans today had not finished high school. There are plenty of successes that stem back from the Great Society, but the Great Society was not as great as Lyndon Johnson had hoped it would be.