Origins of the Missouri Junior College Enabling Act
Written by Jon Bauer, Ph.D.
President, East Central College
Presented November 30, 2022, at the Missouri Community College Association Annual Conference in St. Louis, MO
The system of public community colleges in Missouri owes much to the adoption of the Junior College Enabling Act of 1961. This act, created in large part due to an ad hoc committee established by the state governor in the late 1950s, spawned the proliferation of community colleges around the state in the decade of the 1960s. The growth in public community colleges in Missouri paralleled the extraordinary growth that occurred at the same time throughout the United States. Many of the same historical and demographic factors that led to the growth of community colleges around the nation were also applicable to Missouri. Seen as a case study for the period, an analysis of the development of the Missouri legislation may prove useful in understanding the community college explosion of the 1960s. Moreover, the creation of the enabling act also serves as an example of ad hoc policy formulation at the state level.
At the time of the 1961 legislation, there were public junior colleges in Flat River, Joplin, Kansas City, Moberly, Trenton, and St. Joseph, Missouri. Forty years later there are 12 community college districts and 17 distinct colleges (Missouri Department of Higher Education, 2001). Seven of the new community college districts were created between 1962 and 1968. In 1969, Ben Norton, executive secretary of the Missouri Commission on Higher Education, asked Elmer Ellis, retired president of the University of Missouri, about the origins of the community college system that had mushroomed over the preceding seven years. Ellis replied in writing that the system could be traced to a statewide committee that he co-chaired in the late 1950s. “It really began with the recommendation that came from the State Commission on Education Beyond the High School,” wrote Ellis (Ellis, 1969).
Historical Context
Junior colleges in Missouri preceded the adoption of the enabling legislation of 1961. As early as the 1890s, R. H. Jesse, president of the University of Missouri, advocated the belief that the first two years of college should be part of a student’s secondary education (Witt, Wattenbarger, Gollattscheck, and Suppiger, 1994). Jesse was a friend of William Rainey Harper, who established a model at the University of Chicago that divided the traditional four-year college experience into two parts: the first two years that comprised the junior or academic college, and the second two years that were known as the senior or university college (Rudolph, 1968). Jesse’s successor at the University of Missouri, Ross Hill, was instrumental in the conversion of several small religious colleges from four-year institutions to two-year colleges as they eliminated their junior and senior years of instruction (Grass, 1999). In 1913 the University of Missouri established the Committee on Accrediting Junior Colleges in order to serve as the accrediting body for the two-year colleges. By 1929, the state had 16 private two-year colleges (Witt et al., 1994).
The first public two-year college in the state was the Kansas City Polytechnic Institute, a forerunner of the Junior College of Kansas City and, later, the Metropolitan Community College District of Kansas City. By 1927, there were at least five public junior colleges in the state, all of which had been created locally without state approval or support (Witt et al, 1994). The state legislature adopted a law in 1927 that allowed accredited high schools to offer junior college courses. The bill provided for state support in the amount of $100 per year for each teacher with a salary in excess of $1,000. In practical terms, this support amounted to approximately $1 per student (Grass, 1999). Even without strong state support, Witt et al estimate that there were as many as 23 public junior colleges serving 5,554 students by 1929. However, by 1960 the number of junior colleges had dwindled to six, enrollment was estimated to be approximately 3,500, and the state still held no mechanism for the establishment of a public junior college district separate and distinct from existing school districts.
In the years following World War II, two national commissions played a role in the future of American higher education. The first was the President’s Commission on Higher Education, appointed by President Harry Truman and chaired by George Zook, head of the American Council on Education. Freeland (1992) writes that the most controversial recommendation of this commission was that which called for facilities to be expanded so that 49 per cent of the population aged 18 to 21 in 1960 would receive at least two years of college, and 32 percent would attend for four years. The report of the commission called specifically for tuition-free education for the traditional freshman and sophomore years. The report also noted that the term “community college” best described the two-year institutions in place at that time. “The important thing is that the services they perform be recognized and vastly extended” (President’s Commission on Higher Education, 1947).
Nine years later, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed the Committee on Education Beyond the High School, chaired by Devereux Josephs of New York Life (Kerr, 1984). The Josephs Committee addressed issues such as enlarging educational opportunity and expanding facilities to meet a projected six million students by 1970. By 1957, the commission had called on President Eisenhower to encourage the nation’s governors to spearhead state and local action on the issues outlined in its reports. In Missouri, Governor James T. Blair Jr. responded to that recommendation by appointing the Governor’s Special Committee on Education Beyond the High School, and naming as the committee’s co-chairs Elmer Ellis, president of the University of Missouri, and Father Paul C. Reinert, president of St. Louis University. The committee began meeting the following year (Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School, March 10, 1958).
Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School
The Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School included 36 members from around the state. In addition to Ellis and Reinert, other college presidents on the committee included Walter Pope Binns, William Jewell College; Glynn E. Clark, Harris Teachers College; M. Earle Collins, Missouri Valley College; Earl E. Dawson, Lincoln University; Blanche Dow, Cottey College; Richard M. Drake, University of Kansas City; J. W. Jones, Northwest Missouri State College; Franc L. McCleur, Lindenwood College; and Mark Scully, Southeast Missouri State College. Other members included school superintendents, elected officials, journalists, business persons, and private citizens (Missouri Committee on Education Beyond the High School, 1960).
The committee met six times before issuing its first report to the governor in 1960. In addition to its call for a statewide system of public junior colleges, the committee recommended better support for existing colleges and universities, a state scholarship plan, a plan for student loans, abolition of diploma mills, and the establishment of a permanent Commission on Higher Education (Missouri Committee on Education Beyond the High School). Citing projected enrollment of 133,000 students by 1975 (compared to 56,546 in 1960), the committee found that the state lacked facilities for its existing needs, and was still less adequate for the future. The committee also found Missouri to be “behind most states in the percentage of college graduates in the adult population and in the availability of research facilities for agriculture, science, business, and industry.” The report sounded an ominous bell:
Compared with other states this condition constitutes a definite drag upon Missouri’s economic and on its social and intellectual development. Those states which have the best supply of trained people and the most active and successful programs of research are the ones where the economy, the professional standards, and the cultural affairs make progress at the most rapid rate. The greatest present need for Missouri’s higher education is better support for its existing institutions.
In subsequent years, the state enhanced support for existing institutions, established scholarships and loans for students, created a Commission on Higher Education that later became the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, and set standards in an effort to abolish diploma mills by empowering the Coordinating Board to oversee certification of proprietary schools in the state. The first significant result, however, was the Missouri Junior College Enabling Act passed into law the year following the committee’s report.
The committee first addressed the junior college issue in its third meeting, held December 6, 1958, at St. Louis University. While minutes of the meeting do not list in detail the nature of the discussion, it was decided that a subcommittee should look at the desirability of recommending a state plan for junior colleges in Missouri (Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School, December 6, 1958). By the time the committee met again on October 21, 1959, the subcommittee chaired by A. L. Crow, superintendent of schools in Kirkwood, had developed a recommendation for the group’s consideration. With only minor changes to the report, the committee as a whole adopted it as a recommendation to be sent immediately to Governor Blair. The recommendation cited the state’s growing need for college-trained people, and an “impending large increase in the number of high school graduates desiring one or more years of education beyond the high school.” To meet the upcoming needs, the state was “faced with the necessity of building up exceedingly large enrollments in the present institutions of higher education, or of developing additional colleges, or a combination of these means” (Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School, October 21, 1959).
The recommendation adopted by the committee called for a “revised and expanded state junior college structure” that would: 1) provide for state control, 2) control the location of new junior colleges “so that the number of students will be adequate, the tax support base will be sufficient without encroaching on the support needed for elementary and secondary schools, and so that such new junior colleges will not interfere” with existing colleges, 3) make use of existing agencies and procedures to ensure appropriate standards for facilities, finances, curricula, faculty, equipment, and related matters, and, 4) provide state financial assistance at least equal, per student, to that provided to secondary schools (Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School, October 21, 1959). This proposal contained some of the essential components of the bill later introduced in the Missouri General Assembly.
Before the next meeting of the Committee on Education Beyond the High School, an informal meeting was held by the junior college subcommittee in Jesse Hall, at the University of Missouri campus in Columbia, on June 4, 1960. The meeting included representatives of some of the state’s existing junior colleges, as well as representatives from communities that had expressed interest in forming junior colleges in their respective areas (Junior College Subcommittee of the Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School, June 4, 1960). There were 28 people attending, including a University of Missouri graduate student named Charles McClain, who went on to serve as president of Jefferson College and commissioner of higher education in Missouri. Minutes of the meeting show that “all expressed an interest in a sound state plan for junior colleges.” President Ellis called for a system with “both academic and technical curricula.” Representatives of existing junior colleges emphasized their financial difficulties, while those from other communities “described strong interest on the part of their people in getting new junior colleges started.” At the conclusion of the meeting, those in attendance voted unanimously to request that Ellis and Reinert, co-chairs of the Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School, appoint a committee to draft a bill to be presented to the General Assembly in 1961. The Governor’s Committee at its next meeting, June 18, 1960, unanimously agreed to “draw up a junior college bill” and placed Ward Barnes, superintendent of schools in Normandy, in charge of the subcommittee charged with drafting the bill (Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School, June 18, 1960).
As the proposed legislation began to take shape in 1960, the Governor’s Committee progressed toward its final report to Governor Blair. The report, adopted November 25, 1960, provided two reasons for the development of a plan for state supported junior colleges:
This, the committee believes, is necessary for the following reasons: a) the state has a growing need for college trained people at the degree level, and an expanded junior college program, enabling many more capable young people to get the first two years of college work at minimum expense, will increase the number of persons completing degree programs; b) there is a great need for skilled workers, technicians, and semi-professional people at less than the degree level, and a system of junior colleges could offer the technical programs to train such people.
The final report then listed the four components of the recommendation for a junior college plan in Missouri. These components were more sharply defined than those included in the original recommendation forwarded to the governor, but the essential issues were the same: a) state control sufficient “to insure reasonable economy and a high degree of educational effectiveness, b) control over the establishment of new junior colleges, c) control vested in the State Board of Education, and d) state support in the amount of $200 per year for each full-time student (Missouri Committee on Education Beyond the High School, 1960).
Junior College Enabling Act
The bill introduced in the Missouri General Assembly, Senate Bill 7, dealt with 16 issues related to the establishment and operation of junior college districts. A junior college district could be formed within a single public school district or in two or more contiguous districts, by a simple majority of the voters in the proposed district. Districts would be governed by six-member boards of trustees, who also would be elected at the time of the formation of the district. The bill established guidelines for a property tax levy to support the new district, provided bonding authority for capital construction, and established a state formula to assist junior colleges in the amount of $200 for each 30 semester hours of credit completed during the preceding year. Finally, the bill placed junior colleges under the control and supervision of the State Board of Education. Existing junior colleges also were placed under the state board’s purview (Senate Bill 7, 1961).
Grass (1999) writes that yet another committee, this one a political action group called “Missouri Citizens Committee for State Aid for Junior Colleges,” lobbied in support of the measure. This committee included several of the members of the Committee on Education Beyond the High School, including Ward Barnes, who led the subcommittee that drafted the bill (Missouri Citizens Committee for State Aid for Junior Colleges, 1961). The bill was approved by the General Assembly on June 29, 1961, and later signed into law by the governor. Even before its final passage in the General Assembly, the legislation was hailed by the Columbia Missourian newspaper, in an editorial dated May 26, 1961:
With predicted enormous waves of students expected to enter Missouri colleges during the next 10 years, it is encouraging to note that bills in the Legislature to establish a system of state junior colleges are moving along toward probable quick passage. The measures could set a pattern for higher education in Missouri for generations to come. Full-time enrollment in existing institutions is expected to double by 1971. By 1975, an increase of 139 percent is forecast. There are few arguments in the state about the need for college expansions. The big question is how to do it with efficiency and economy. As it stands now, the Missouri junior college plan offers a program of local-state cooperation that would bring economy and quality. People in one or more existing school districts would vote on the establishment of junior college districts. The junior colleges would be financed through local tax support—voted by the people—and from student fees. The state would provide $200 per year for each full-time student. State regulations would insist on quality education. The Missouri junior college system would, by no means, be a substitute for traditional learning or a shortcut to a degree. Many students who attend junior colleges would continue their education at schools offering the bachelor’s and other degrees. The plan could, in the long run, save Missouri millions of dollars and put the state in a position to meet continuing enrollment demands. Apparently the legislators sense the urgency of the situation. The junior college may become the most notable achievement to come out of the 1961 legislature.
Epilogue
As a result of the Junior College Enabling Act, the state witnessed an explosion of community colleges over the subsequent six years. The St. Louis Community College District was formed in 1962, the first to be organized under the new law. The district today includes three campuses in St. Louis County: Meramec, Forest Park, and Florissant Valley. Crowder College in Neosho and Jefferson College in Hillsboro were formed as new colleges in 1964, and the Junior College of Kansas City was reorganized as the Metropolitan Community College District that same year. Metropolitan today includes four campuses: Blue River, Longview, Maple Woods, and Penn Valley). In 1966, State Fair Community College in Sedalia and Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff were organized, and East Central College in Union concluded the list of colleges formed in the 1960s as a result of the legislation (Missouri Department of Higher Education, 2001). Two additional community college districts have subsequently been formed in Missouri: St. Charles Community College in 1986 and Ozark Technical College, located in Springfield, in 1990.
The proliferation of community colleges in Missouri mirrors that of the nation as a whole. The American Association of Community Colleges (2001) tracks the growth of institutions by decade. From 1961 through 1970, there were 497 two-year institutions established, bringing to 909 the total number in existence in 1970. The growth in the 1960s is more than triple that of any other single decade in the 20th century.
The legislation signed into law in 1961 was the outgrowth of ad hoc policy developments, demographics, and public demand for local alternatives to the higher education system then available. Through a combination of local and state control, the plan submitted to the legislature enabled local communities to establish a community college district, with the assistance of a base level of state aid and assurance that state oversight would ensure at least minimal standards of economy and efficiency. In the intervening years, the system established by the legislation has remained relatively unchanged, and has served an increasing number of students. The Missouri Department of Higher Education (2000) reported that 77,317 students were enrolled in Missouri’s public community colleges, compared to 102,944 undergraduates at the public four-year colleges and universities in the state. The most significant change is that oversight of community colleges now rests with the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, rather than the State Board of Education, although institutions are still governed locally by boards of trustees. Similar efforts or initiatives were carried out elsewhere in the nation, in large part due to the same projected enrollment patterns resulting from the post-war baby boom. As those individuals came of college age, states wrestled with issues similar to those confronted by Missouri in the late 1950s, particularly facilities and offerings.
Missouri’s system of community colleges is not quite what the state’s native son, President Harry Truman, advocated in 1947. The system is not tuition-free, nor does it ensure or require that half of the population attend at least two years of college beyond the high school. It does, however, serve to remove several barriers cited in the report to President Truman: economic barriers due to the cost of higher education, barriers of a curriculum restricted to “verbal skills and intellectual interests,” and racial or cultural barriers that can be removed with the establishment of locally supported and controlled institutions that are responsive to the needs and desires of the community. To that extent, the vision articulated by Missouri’s only president has, to some degree, been realized in his home state.
Finally, the development of the junior college legislation illustrates the importance of ad hoc policy formulation, and the role such activities can play. Political leaders often appoint blue ribbon panels or commissions for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is to appease key stakeholders. While some of these commissions end up with reports or recommendations that expire with publication, others lead to significant changes in public policy. The development of the junior college legislation is the result of three distinct ad hoc policy efforts, two at the national level and one at the state level. Those committees led to specific statutory recommendations that later became law. Three elements appear to have played significant roles in this successful outcome. First, the political leadership recognized pressing issues and made the decision to have those issues analyzed. Second, the members took seriously their role on the committees and developed specific recommendations and strategies for action, going so far as to draft actual statutory language to be introduced in the legislature. The seriousness and foresight exercised by the committee is illustrated by the eventual adoption of each of its key recommendations. Third, the recommendations were followed up with political pressure to affect change, in many cases by the same individuals who had proposed the change in the first place. Without each of these critical elements, it is doubtful that the legislation would have been adopted at the time, and with the speed with which it became law. Moreover, as the enrollments crashed onto the scene, one can argue that the legislation came about in the proverbial “nick of time.”
References
American Association of Community Colleges (2001). Community college growth by decade, 1961-1970. Retrieved from http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Content/Naviation Menu/AboutCom…/CC_Growth_1961-1970.ht
Ellis, E. (1969, March 24). Letter to Ben Morton regarding the origin of junior college law. University of Missouri Archives.
Freeland, R. M. (1992). The world transformed: A golden age for American universities, 1945-1970. In Goodchild, L. F. & Weschler, H. S. (Eds.), The history of higher education (2nd ed.) (pp. 587-610). Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing.
Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School (1958, March 10). Minutes of rhe first meeting of the governor’s committee on education beyond the high school. University of Missouri Archives.
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- Bill 7 (1961). 71st General Assembly.
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