2 Johnson's great society, 1964-1968 Flashcards
(23 cards)
aims for johnsons great society:
- end poverty
- racial equality
- educational reform
- modern housing
- the end of urban decay
- a renewed sense of community
- environmentalims
- peace with other nations
- 75% approval rating
civil rights laws
Fair Housing Act 1968
- intergrated housing
- white people opposed because black movement into white neighbourhoods would lower property values
- congress shamed into it? because of MLKs assassination
- prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of housing
civil rights laws
Johnson’s achievements: the executive order of 1965
- required institutions recieving federal funding to employ non-whites
- liberals/conservatives praised/criticised it
- racism continued, but legislation, affirmative policies, war on porverty etc helpd
civil rights laws
Economic Opportunity Act 1964
established a new office of economic opportunity to coordinate the war on poverty
civil rights laws
what did Johnson tell congress in February 1965?
anti-poverty programmes, job corps, education programmes, federal aid
- 44 anti poverty programmes, 6 more to come
- 53 jobs corps centres providing training
- 95,000 adults enrolled in basic education programmes
- 4m+ recieving aid to families with dependent children benefits
- loads more but i aint writing all that :,)
civil rights laws
Johnsons achievements: 2 acclaimed programmes?
- head start:enabled pre-school children to catch up before school started, nearly 1m disadvabtaged children enrolled
- upward bound: linked higher education institututions to poorer students with potential. 50,000 disadvantaged students participated each year under johnson
civil rights laws
criticisms of johnson’s achievemnets
Eg. $$
ghetto youth and job corps, johnson and poverty
- cost more to put ghetto youth into the job corps than into harvard
- war on poverty was underfunded (say the liberals in unison) congress and taxpyares would not have agreed to further expenses tho
- Johnson did not eradicate poverty. Eg. 1/3 of non-white families still lived below the poverty line, after Johnson, with unemployment and infant mortality rates almost 2x that of whites.
education
1964: Johnson highlighted the problems….
there are 4
how many never finished high school? under 5 years of schooling? affording college? quality of schooling?
- 54m americans had never finished high school
- 8m had under 5 years of schooling
- 100,000 high school graduates with proven ability could not afford college
- schools were overcrowded and run down, with bad teachers
education
what did johnson persuade congress to spend on education, how?
$8 billion. (double federal expenditure)
- he said america spent ‘seven times as much on a youth that has gone bad’ as one who had stayed in school
education
the elementary and secondary education act 1965 (ESEA)
problems, successes
- 6.7m poor children benefitted
- in 1985 the National Institute of Education estimated half the spending had gone to children above the poverty line
- the president seemed preoccupied, and paid little attention to the practice of the legislation.
education
Johnsons achievements
- nmillions of children benefitted
- % of those with a diploma rose
- shortage of teachers ended
- new buildings constructed
- accessibility to college increased
Housing and urban problems
departmentof housing and urban development 1965
coordinated programmes to combat housing shortages in inner cities
Housing and urban problems
Demonstration cities Act 1966
- chicago, detroit, houston, LA, philly, Washington became ‘model cities’ in which the government would clear slums
- severely underfunded ($1.2b), the New York Times predicted NYC alone needed $6b.
- members of congress also all demanded something for their particular cities, so the funding was spread far too thinly to be effective
Housing and urban problems
omnibus housing Act 1965
financed $8b worth of low and moderate income housing in the ghettos
- Johnson persuaded builders to construct reasonably priced housing, but ghettos remained dire
- (Fair Housing Act 1968…)
Housing and urban problems
Johnsons failures
ghetto rioters, taxpayers, housing.
- 4/5 of detroit ghetto rioters arrested in 1967 had jobs paying over $120 weekly, suggesting it was housing over poverty, but:
- taxpayers did not want to fund large scale improvements
- minority housing problem too great for any one president to solve
Medicare, Medicaid, 1965
debates over federal financial support for healthcaer
- democrats always advocated for it
- republicans insisted it was consumerist
Medicare, Medicaid, 1965
social security act 1965
- medicare: fully funded health insurance for over 65s, and the disabled regardless of income or existing medical conditions
- 1966 19m were enrolled in medicare
- meidcaid gave medical assistance to those who could not afford essential medical service
- within a year, medicaid increased the amount spent by the governments on healthcare for poorer citizens from £1.3b to over £2b
Medicare, Medicaid, 1965
Johnsons achievements
- medicare lifted millions of elderly americans out of poverty
- so popular no president opposed it
Medicare, Medicaid, 1965
drawbacks of medicare
- gaps in coverage: eyeglasses
- way more $$$ than johnoson anticipated. the hospitals were allowed to set fees, to total cost rocketed from $3.5b to $144b in 1993, 5-15% of the GNP
- problem of reasonably priced care for most americans remained
the environment
wilderness act 1964
- protected 9.1m acres of federal land
the environment
highway beautification act 1965
- decreased billboard advertising
the environment
national parks?
- 50 new areas gto be administrated by the national park service + expanding existing ones
- Guadalupe Mountains National Park Texas, North Cascades, Redwood
the environment
water quality and clean air acts of 1965 + clean water restoration act 1966
- gave government authority to act forcefully against water and air pollution
- triggered great debate over scale of gov intervention
- but regulations remained, suggesting advantages outweighed disadvtantages
