By keeping his campaign promises, President Lyndon Johnson transformed the U.S. educational system for the next 30 years. His legislative achievements in education were consistent with his campaign promises and with policy statements stretching back into his career as U.S. Senate Majority Leader. Johnson was a major contributor to the passage of the National Defense Education Act that pushed for the development of more scientists and mathematicians. Through the accounts of those who worked closest with him in the area of education, Johnson was dedicated to the proposition that every child deserved the best education possible, not only for the individual child's sake but for the good of the nation. Lyndon Johnson recognized the close relationship between the quality of the U.S. educational system and its economic health and sought to build up the nation's educational foundation. Lyndon Johnson's successful efforts to secure educational legislation created a dramatic shift in the focus of educational policy making in the United States and resulted in an expansion of the educational system in terms of both goals and constituencies. Contains 50 references. (CK)