Posted on 03/23/2007 4:55:08 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
WASHINGTON — Its front entrance now touts President Bush's education policy, but the Education Department headquarters will one day honor Lyndon Baines Johnson and his work to improve U.S. schools.
Bush signed legislation Friday naming the agency's offices after the follow Texan, with 17 members of the Johnson family looking on.
Johnson's children, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and their spouses, their children and grandchildren gathered at the Oval Office for the signing that was not open to reporters. First lady Laura Bush also attended.
Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady, was unable to attend but listened from Texas through a conference call, said Rep. Gene Green, a Houston Democrat who sponsored the bill.
"This will be a fitting tribute to Lyndon who worked so hard to make life better for so many, and — were he alive — I can think of nothing that would please him more," she said in a statement.
She said her husband would want to be remembered as the "Education President."
"Education was at the heart of my father's career in public service. He felt that it was mankind's passport out of poverty and our greatest hope for tomorrow," said Luci Baines Johnson, the 36th president's daughter.
Johnson, a Democrat, served as president from 1963-69 and died in 1973. He signed dozens of education-related bills, including a 1964 law that established Head Start, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which provided assistance to underfunded school districts and the Higher Education Act of 1965.
"If every building in D.C. had no name and we could choose one to bear my father's, we couldn't have hoped for one that would reflect more who he was and what he tried to do," Luci Baines Johnson said.
Johnson attended the former Texas State Teachers College, now Texas State University in San Marcos, and taught for a year in Cotulla in South Texas. His experience teaching poor Mexican-American children in the town was considered a great influence on his policies.
Throughout the Bush administration, a red school house facade with "No Child Left Behind" — the name of Bush's education legislation — has stood at the education department's front entrance.
Green said he was uncertain when Johnson's name would be on the building and whether it would share billing with the red schoolhouse.
Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Austin, helped garner backing for the bill among Republicans.
"Any time you name a federal building after somebody you are enshrining a memory. Hopefully, when people walk by the building, future generations, and see the name Lyndon Baines Johnson, they will pick up the history books and read about him," said McCaul. Several Johnson family members, including Lady Bird, live in his district.
Lyndon Kyle Boozer, who said his mother Yolanda Garza Boozer was a secretary to Johnson, approached Green with the idea to honor Johnson two years ago. The bill was first introduced in 2003 but stalled in the then Republican-controlled Congress.
Despite his Texas ties, some in the state's delegation chose not to co-sponsors the bill. Twenty-five of the 32 House members from Texas, all 13 Democrats and 12 of the 19 Republicans, added their names to the bill.
Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, both Texas Republicans, backed the bill in the Senate.
The bill is H.R. 584.
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On the Net: To find legislation: http://thomas.loc.gov
A Reagan only comes around every two or three hundred years. You and I were lucky enough to live in that time.
Reagan was to the USA as Cincinnatus was to the roman republic.
In the meantime, we have to do what we can with what we have.
We must use the tools God has given us. Abraham Lincoln
Sadly must agree on that. At the same time I intend to hold them fully accountable regardless of the (R) or (D) after their name.
Bush talks tough early in the day then chooses to honor the worst president in US history, just when I think Bush is starting to do the right thing he again demonstrates a disregard for our country and Constitution.
That is rather harsh. First of all, this was scheduled before he spoke today. Probably long before. There are only 43 Presidents in the history of our country so even the worst President was still only one of 43. Not too bad really. But President Clinton honored President Reagan during his Presidency when he named a building in D.C. This is something that all Presidents do. We may have a Democrat President naming a building for GW someday. Do we want DU to complain and be nasty about that?
About a year ago the Harvard Business Journal ran a feature on leaders who intimidate. LBJ would insist that his staff come into the john and discuss official business while he sat on the throne taking care of his bodily functions. One time out in the middle of Texas LBJ made his chauffeur pull over so that he could relieve himself. While the Secret Service agent held the door LBJ pissed on the agents shoe and when the agent said something LBJ said I know. He did it on purpose just to demonstrate his power. As for being a disgusting piece of humanity LBJ tops even Clinton or Carter. It might be fitting that the building named for LBJ is for an unconstitutional department, it demonstrates the same kind of contempt for our government that LBJ showed.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . For some reason, I didn't notice all of the perpetually disgruntled, Bush-bashers on yesterday's thread announcing that our "yankee" president had similarly honored RUSH LIMBAUGH'S father -- just exchange the 'school house' for a 'post office'!
Again, the mean-spirited, uninformed, hyperbolic, adolescent behavior on FR has become verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry OLD!
He was an imperfect man in a very difficult time trying to do the best the could.
Wow! It is amazing what you learn on this awesome site. I learn more here than any university for sure!
Read 45
LBJ took the IRT
Down to 4th Street USA
When he got there
What did he see?
The youth of America on LSD
LBJ IRT
USA LSD
LSD LBJ
FBI CIA
FBI CIA
LSD LBJ
I have voted for him four times.
If that is not enough I don't know what will be satisfactory.
Absolutely true. Say it loud.
Ahahahahahaha! That was a real knee slapper!!!!!!
Here's the thing - I'll criticize anyone who abuses the Constitution or Bill of Rights, regardless the initial after their name or the church they attend.
Fortunately that doesn't make me a hypocrite.
It's what Presidents do. Nothing to see here folks.
Precisely.
. . . maybe it just makes you a pompous _ _ _ (fill in the blanks)!
When talking about the civil rights bill, didn't LBJ say that once the demonRats signed the bill they would have the (N word) vote for the next 100 years?
LOL ok.
No less accurate I see.
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