First, this law – the National Defense Education Act – ended years and years of debate about one controversial question: ‘Shall the Federal Government, with all its massive resources, get directly involved in aiding American education?’ The answer this law gave was a loud ‘Yes!’ – and thus we paved the way for a new era of support for education in America. This law, in fact, helped make possible more than 50 new education laws passed in my administration.
