Frederick Community College Facilities Master Plan Chapter 2 Environmental Scan 2-39 May, 2023 United States business and industry has been on a parallel course as education in America. In the decades following the Civil War, the United States became an industrial giant. Building on existing “old industries”, the U.S. expanded in petroleum refining, steel manufacturing, and electrical power. The expansion of railroads turned the U.S. into a national market economy.105 Economic prosperity was not uniform as all aspects of American society did not share in this wealth. Many workers were unemployed for parts of the year; wages were relatively low when they did work; and farmers were faced with technological advances that increased production, more competition, falling prices; and relocation of its young people to cities seeking better opportunity. Immigration to the United States from many parts of the world was the result of issues in their native lands such as: crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes; famine; and perceived U.S. economic opportunity.106 The early 20th Century was a period of business expansion and progressive reform in the U.S. Americans focused themselves on regulating “big business”, cleaning up corrupt city governments, improving working conditions, improving living conditions; and improving the environment and conserving resources.107 The stock market crash in October 1929 brought about the great economic depression. Subsequently, America was drawn into World War II. Millions of men and women entered military service, labor demands caused a displacement of Americans to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts to work in the defense plants. Post-war, American society became more affluent.108 “In his 1961 farewell address, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously warned the 105 https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/unitedstates-history-primary-source-timeline/rise-ofindustrial-america-1876-1900/overview/; Overview. 106 Ibid.; Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900 107 Ibid.; Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929 108 Ibid.; The Post War United States, 1945-1968 public of the nation’s increasingly powerful military-industrial complex and the threat it posed to American democracy. Today the United States routinely outspends every other country for military and defense expenditures.”109 Post President Dwight D. Eisenhower, many did not share in this American Dream. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and American women began to seek full freedoms and civil rights guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution they perceived as being denied them. Post-World War II there was general bi-partisan support for most U.S. foreign policy initiatives. The U.S. intervention in Vietnam contributed to a consensus breakdown. In addition to the aforementioned groups perceiving their rights being denied, the 20th Century saw organized activism to secure those same aforementioned rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people.110 In this ever changing, dynamic political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal context, American business and industry attempted to maintain its post-World War II gains. Federal government’s response was to build on its prior efforts. The SmithHughes Act of 1917 first authorized federal funding for vocational education in American schools. Its expressed purpose was preparing for careers not requiring a bachelor’s degree. From its outset, John Dewey criticized vocational education design as having a built-in class distinction.111 “Waste of natural resources and carelessness as to human life, together with almost exclusive attention to raw 109 https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/militaryindustrial-complex 110 Op cit.; LGBTQ Activism 111https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2014/09/09/thetroubled-history-of-vocational-education
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