Remembering LBJ’s real legacy
December 19, 2006| By Nathaniel Ward
A few years ago, liberals in the House of Representatives proposed renaming the Department of Education’s headquarters building after President Lyndon Johnson. Heritage education expert Dan Lips explains that conservatives have every reason to support the measure (emphasis added):
Naming the Department of Education to honor LBJ would be a permanent reminder of the tragic history of federal education policy. It would also warn future Republican administrations and Congresses about the folly of Johnson's “Great Society” strategy for improving education.
Johnson’s big-government solutions have failed for four decades running, Lips explains, leaving generations of children to suffer from mediocre schooling even as the government throws more and more money at the problem. Naming the Department of Education in his honor would be “a lasting monument to President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s failed strategy for improving American education.”
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
