The Civil Rights Act established basic rights and responsibilities in the workplace. It prevented discrimination of any sort and addressed issues such as equal employment opportunities, voting rights, equal education, fair housing, and public accommodations.

The Economic Opportunity Act authorized the spending of federal funds to support college work-study programs for students from low-income families, education and vocational training for unemployed youth, and training and work opportunities for those in welfare programs. A rise in support for action programs such as Job Corps, Head Start, Follow Through, Upward Bound, and Volunteers in Service to America also occurred.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act authorized federal funds to be allocated for elementary and secondary programs serving low-income families. Educational research and training as well as library resources, textbooks, and other instructional materials would be improved through this funding.

The Higher Education Act addressed similar issues as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but at a higher educational level. Federal funding would be available for systems to solve their educational problems. Programs such as continuing education, student loans, and the National Teacher Corps would assist in this.

Grants to encourage educational programs for adults were authorized by The Adult Education Act.

Vocational Amendments brought the definition of vocational education closer to that of general education. They provided great sums of money to address the economic and social problems facing the nation at the time. A few things provided were a National Advisory Committee to address the needs of disadvantaged students, methods to collect and disseminate information about vocational education, an added emphasis on the postsecondary level, and cooperative education being added to the list of programs in which to receive federal funding.