Returning to the Topic -- The Idealism of Community College
Responding to a late 20th century ideal of universal access to higher education for all Americans, especially those without the financial means or academic credentials to compete for established four-year universities, the vision of community colleges in the United States promised open access for all community residents to accredited low-costs colleges with close ties to both business and secondary education. After World War II, the Truman Commission in 1947 argued for principles of democracy and expansion of universal higher education, positioned these institutions not only opportunity to higher education merely to economic improvement, but even a fundamental call for a liberalized citizenry: American colleges and universities must envision a much larger role for higher education in the national life. They can no longer consider themselves merely the institute for producing an intellectual elite; they must become the means by which every citizen, youth, and adult is enabled to encou...