Frederick Community College Facilities Master Plan Chapter 2 Environmental Scan 2-33 May, 2023 STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN CONTEXT EDUCATION The establishment of education in the United States Constitution is reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”90 The Maryland Constitution of 1867 set forth the establishment of a public education system, a transition period to assess the existing system, and a system of dedicated public funding: “The General Assembly, at its First Session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall by Law establish throughout the State a thorough and efficient System of Free Public Schools; and shall provide by taxation, or otherwise, for their maintenance. The System of Public Schools, as now constituted, shall remain in force until the end of the said first Session of the General Assembly, and shall then expire; except so far as adopted, or continued by the General Assembly. The School Fund of the State shall be kept inviolate, and appropriated only to the purposes of Education.”91 The above sets forth some constitutional principles, rules of law, and statutory interpretation for the legal context from which an efficient public system of education evolved. The Morrill Act of 1862 (the Land Grant Act) expanded access into higher education. America’s first public community college began in 1901 as an experimental postgraduate high school program. William Rainey Harper, President of the University of Chicago and J. Stanley Brown, the Superintendent of Joliet Township High School are credited as the innovators.92 Enrollment started slowly as community colleges were being established, but during the Great Depression, curricula was expanded to job training, enrollment rose, and community 90 https://constitution.findlaw.com/bill-of-rights.html 91https://codes.findlaw.com/md/maryland-constitution-of1867/#!tid=NAF9F3F209B5B11DB9BCF9DAC28345A2A 92 https://www.jjc.edu/about-jjc/history 93 https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/history-of-american-maricopa-community-colleges 94 https://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/SpellingsReport.pdf ; p.vi 95 Op. cit.; colleges helped to relieve unemployment during the 1930s to 1950s.93 After World War II, the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly referred to as the G.I. Bill made access to higher education a national priority.94 The increased enrollment remained the trend through the 1960’s and 1970’s as young people sought to defer being drafted into Vietnam.95 The community college sector of postsecondary education was the catalyst for greater opportunity and led to America having more people at a higher level of education than any other nation. Fast-forward, to April 1983, The National Commission on Excellence in Education released A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for
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