From Land Grants to Local Control

Granted each state 30,000 acres of federal land per congressional seat, sold to endow at least one college teaching agriculture and mechanic arts alongside classical and scientific studies, the first federal act to shape what American colleges taught.

Held that racially segregated public facilities, including schools, were constitutional so long as they were equal in quality, establishing the separate but equal doctrine that would govern American schooling for the next fifty-eight years.

Paid tuition and living-expense benefits for honorably discharged World War II veterans to attend high school, college or vocational school, the first time federal education money reached individual students directly rather than institutions.

Held racial segregation of children in public schools unconstitutional, overturning the separate-but-equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson.

Established Title I federal funding directed at schools serving low-income children, the first major sustained federal financial role in American public schooling.

Bars sex-based exclusion, denial of benefits, or discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

Guarantees children with disabilities a free appropriate public education tailored to their individual needs, delivered through an individualized education program, first passed as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.

Declared that declining academic performance threatened American competitiveness and recommended the reforms that launched the standards-based accountability movement still shaping policy today.

Required annual state testing in reading and math and held schools accountable for adequate yearly progress toward one hundred percent proficiency, with escalating consequences for schools that fell short.

Shifted primary school-accountability authority from the federal government back to the states, requiring state systems built on multiple measures rather than a single federal test-based formula, the most recent turn in a century and a half of the same argument over who should set the terms of a child's education.