The National Defense Education Act of 1958 (P.L. 85-864; 72 Stat. 1580) became law on September 2, 1958. This federal policy largely targeted collegiate education, authorizing both National Defence Fellowships and loans for students.
The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) also provided funds to state educational agencies for the purposes of improving the teaching of science, mathematics, and “modern foreign languages” (e.g., Russian, not Latin). Thus, the NDEA was the first major federal foray into K-12 curricula since the Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act of 1917.
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Federal Education Policy History 