Higher Education for American Democracy

Higher Education for American Democracy was a report to U.S. President Harry S. Truman on the condition of higher education in the United States. The commission to write this report was established on July 13, 1946, and it was chaired by George F. Zook.

The report is significant not only for its six-volume size but for the fact that it marks the first time in United States history that a President established a commission for the purposes of analyzing the country's system of education, a task typically left to the states as prescribed by the Tenth Amendment.[1] Such Presidential commissions are, today, relatively common. See, for example, President Ronald Reagan's, A Nation at Risk, and President George W. Bush's, "A Test of Leadership," sometimes known as The Spellings Report.

The Truman Commission Report, as it is sometimes known, calls for several significant changes in postsecondary education, among them, the establishment of a network of public community colleges, which would be free of charge for "all youth who can profit from such education".[2] The commission helped popularize the phrase "community college" in the late 1940s and helped shape the future of two-year degree institutions in the U.S.[3] The report also calls for increased Federal spending in the form of "scholarships, fellowships, and general aid".[2]

References

  1. ^ Thelin, John R. A History of American Higher Education. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 2004.
  2. ^ a b Harry S. Truman: Statement by the President Making Public a Report of the Commission on Higher Education
  3. ^ "AACC | Significant Events". Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-06.

Further reading

  • Gilbert, Claire Krendl, and Donald E. Heller. "Access, equity, and community colleges: The Truman Commission and federal higher education policy from 1947 to 2011." Journal of Higher Education 84.3 (2013): 417–443. online
  • Ris, Ethan W. "Higher education deals in democracy: The Truman Commission Report as a political document." Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 54.1 (2022): 17–23. online
  • Ris, Ethan W., and Eddie R. Cole. "Promises Made: The Truman Commission Report at 75." Peabody Journal of Education (2023): 1–4. online
  • Strohl, Nicholas M., and Ethan W. Ris. "The Higher Education Generation: World War I and the Truman Commission’s Path to Universal College Access." Peabody Journal of Education (2023): 1–15. online