Ted Kennedy, the lion of the senate, has passed away after a protracted battle with a brain tumor. As the memory of this champion of issues remains molten, let’s look back at one of the man’s many notable crusades – education. Top of the line schooling has always been the highest priority for Senator Kennedy, and his commitment was to ensuring that everyone, even the poorest and most disadvantaged, had the best opportunity to have an education. From students of all ages to teachers of all backgrounds, he was the essence of American education – a non-stop all go no quit proponent for nothing but the best.

Early Childhood Education
Ted Kennedy started supporting Early Childhood education in 1964 with the Economic Opportunity Act. This was the nucleus of the war on poverty and became a stepping stone for the Head Start program. This program provided low income children of ages 3 and 4 the opportunity to develop social skills and early training in order to manure the ground for more structured success later. Over twenty-five million children have participated in this program since its inception, shattering the glass ceiling of poverty that kept many children in a disadvantaged position early in life.

The natural off-shoot of this program was the Early Head Start program, created in 1994 by Senator Kennedy for infants and toddlers who were sunken by a scarcity of money. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it is one of their most effective programs because it focuses on the development of children in their formative years, especially of low income families who cannot otherwise stimulate their children’s growth. Pregnant women can learn life skills and there is parenting training for post-pregnancy as well. Nearly 700,000 families have benefited from this ground breaking initiative.

Elementary and Secondary Education
Senator Kennedy has been a force of progress in developing legislation to stimulate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. With his hard work, this Act has expanded to allow more benefits and money to apply to elementary and secondary schools growth. Growth, to Senator Kennedy, was not simply a throw away word. It meant muscular growth of school programs and students’ abilities in math and science. He never stopped stimulating this kind of strengthening, sponsoring the Star Schools Program Assistance Act to make sure that multi-state communications were always at top form so that information was always available on the best strategies for betterment.

The 1994 Goals 2000 Education America Act was another initiative by Senator Kennedy which promoted occupation standards to help students and workers become highly skilled and trained. Some students knew they wanted to work right after school, and although Kennedy stressed going to college, he always had every situation in mind. He knew that equipping students with the life skills to become effective workers was a high priority, and made sure this Act fulfilled their needs.

In 2001, Senator Kennedy quarterbacked the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which had a major rewrite of virtually all federal elementary and secondary education laws. This rewrite raised academic standards and made sure to hold the school responsible for their results. This made sure to put the emphasis on schools and administrators to give every student the best opportunity in school.

As is very relevant in today’s initiatives by Secretary of Education Duncan, Senator Kennedy was always a pioneer of innovation and a advocate for the neediest of schools. He pushed to expand the school day and to have parents more involved in their children’s education. Senator Kennedy has worked to shut down and reform drop out factories and push for better school systems as well as schools in order to cure the disease of our nation’s low standards of education.

Higher Education and Job Training
Senator Kennedy always believed that any student who wanted college should get college, with finances never being a stumbling block. He has used to Higher Education act of 1965 and pushed it as far as he could to provide equal and open opportunity for all Americans to reach their goals of going to college. In his push, he created the Student Support Services program and innovated the Upward Bound program through the Economic Opportunity Act in order to provide help for low-income students by way of mentoring and academic assistance. The goal here was to increase retention and graduation rates, a goal that continues to be sought after today.

The Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act was supported heavily by Kennedy and helped established programs emphasizing development and skills for people who want to get vocational and technical education. Welders, plumbers, electricians, construction were all on his mind knowing that this kind of infrastructure employment was what America was built on.

He passed the College Cost Reduction Act in 2007 that authorized a $23 billion increase in student aid, the largest since the GI Bill. A year later he passed a bill to continue access to federal student loans no matter the recession brought about by an unstable private credit market.

Hiring and Training New Teachers
Senator Kennedy knew that the backbone of education was the teachers. In 1965 Senator Kennedy fought and won passage of a bill establishing the National Teacher Corps. This program awarded scholarships to students who wanted to supplement their course of studies with education classes. These students, in return, agreed to teach for two years in low income neighborhoods after graduating.

Senator Kennedy was a mainstay on the HELP committee which fought for teacher training and hiring in order to make America’s students more successful. Soon after a speech in December 1997 where he proclaimed he wanted to “bring one hundred thousand new, well-trained teachers into our public schools each year for the next ten years”, he was able to obtain $1.2 billion for hiring teachers to reduce class size in the early grades, a problem he knew needed to be solved in order for students to have the best opportunities possible.

Legacy
Senator Kennedy was a man whose memory will not be forgotten when it comes to all things politics. However, the impact he has made in the lives of millions of children, families and teachers has nothing to do with democrat or republican, partisan or bipartisan. It has to do with his heart, his commitment to America, its children, and its great future ahead. Senator Kennedy had a vision of what he wanted this country’s education environment to look like – he never stopped pursuing that vision. Senator Kennedy once said, “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.” Senator Kennedy dreamed big dreams for little people; for people who could not see as far as he could. Senator Kennedy dreamed for all of us, and the pulse of his dreams will continue beating, well after his lion’s heart has stopped.