USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Economic Opportunity Act (EOA), federal legislation establishing a variety of social programs aimed at facilitating education, health, employment, and general welfare for impoverished Americans. It was signed into law in August 1964 by U.S. Pres. Lyndon B.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Office of Economic Opportunity was the agency responsible for administering most of the War on Poverty programs created as part of United States President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society legislative agenda.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 included the Job Corps, the college Work-Study Program and Head Start, but the following two year period also saw the creation of cornerstone programs such as Food Stamps, Medicare/Medicaid, HUD and others that today remain integral parts of the U.S. safety net.

Detailed explanation-4: -Johnson’s Great Society policies birthed Medicare, Medicaid, the Older Americans Act, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. All of which remain government programs in 2021.

Detailed explanation-5: -While there is debate about the impact of the act, the fact is that poverty rate fell dramatically within 10 years of its passage. According to the US Census Bureau the poverty rate in America 1964 stood at 19.0%. By 1973 the poverty rate was 11.3%, according to the Census Bureau.