Fifty years ago, President Johnson clearly articulated a collective goal—“to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty.” But he knew that old approaches wouldn’t do. He urged “new concepts of cooperation,” arguing to the idealistic audience, “we need your will, and your labor, and your hearts.”
Replacing DPS with a new system of schools powered by families and community-based organizations keeps faith with both LBJ’s powerful sense of urgency for the poor and his view that history appoints the current generation “to lead America toward a new age.”
