THIS is a time of great need--and a time of great progress in American education. In the past year the 89th Congress enacted more than a score of major measures to underwrite excellence in America's classrooms.
But the pursuit of excellence requires more than money; it requires vigorous and enlightened leadership of our schools at the local level.
I believe in local direction of school affairs-and I have firmly committed my administration to that policy.
I hope, therefore, that citizens everywhere who want better schools will recognize their obligations--and live up to them.
We need better teachers; we need more library books and trained librarians; we need more and better courses about our Nation, its history and government; we need more knowledge about our neighbors around the world.
I urge all citizens:
--To visit your local schools, to learn their problems and their possibilities;
--To take an active part in the work of your local parent-teachers association;
--To consider the contribution you can make to better education, and to begin making that contribution today.
Note: On September 29, 1965, the President signed Proclamation 3674, designating the period November 7--13, 1965, as American Education Week, 1965 (1 Weekly Comp. Pres. Does., p. 328; 30 F.R. 12623; 3 CFR, 1965 Supp., p. 60).
The statement was released at Austin, Tex.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President: American Education Week. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241078