<P> The most important educational component of the Great Society was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, designed by Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel . It was signed into law on April 11, 1965, less than three months after it was introduced . It ended a long - standing political taboo by providing significant federal aid to public education, initially allocating more than $1 billion to help schools purchase materials and start special education programs to schools with a high concentration of low - income children . During its first year of operation, the Act authorized a $1.1 billion program of grants to states, for allocations to school districts with large numbers of children of low income families, funds to use community facilities for education within the entire community, funds to improve educational research and to strengthen state departments of education, and grants for purchase of books and library materials . The Act also established Head Start, which had originally been started by the Office of Economic Opportunity as an eight - week summer program, as a permanent program . </P> <P> The Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, which was signed into law by Johnson a month after becoming president, authorized several times more college aid within a five - year period than had been appropriated under the Land Grant College in a century . It provided better college libraries, ten to twenty new graduate centers, several new technical institutes, classrooms for several hundred thousand students, and twenty - five to thirty new community colleges a year . </P> <P> This major piece of legislation was followed by the Higher Education Act of 1965, which increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships and low - interest loans for students, and established a national Teacher Corps to provide teachers to poverty - stricken areas of the United States . The Act also began a transition from federally funded institutional assistance to individual student aid . </P> <P> In 1964, basic improvements in the National Defense Education Act were achieved, and total funds available to educational institutions were increased . The yearly limit on loans to graduate and professional students was raised from $1,000 to $2,500, and the aggregate limit was raised from $5,000 to $10,000 . The program was extended to include geography, history, reading, English, and civics, and guidance and counselling programs were extended to elementary and public junior high schools . </P>

How did the great society aid urban areas