Eureka! A definitive moment in American public education history, when higher education (particularly in science) finally becomes available to larger masses, with intent to add value and commodify scientific knowledge. In Austerity Blues, Michael Fabricant and Steve Brier trace the investment and federal incentives toward higher education in America, from the Morrill Land Grant Acts of 1862 through the Great Depression and World War II. Chapter 2 introduces two significant government exercises that change the landscape of access to undergraduate studies: The G.I. Bill and the Zook Commission’s report on Higher Education in American Democracy.
In 1940, the Roosevelt administration supported the training of scientific and technical personnel essential for the war effort. New Deal policies created opportunities for universities to adapt to changing, racially segregated landscapes requiring healthcare and job creation. Though the GI Bill attempted to equalize the playing field in higher education, it was not able to break through racial barriers. By the mid 1940s, “public and private universities across the country were educating several hundred thousand GIs drawn from all branches of the military in specialized courses in engineering, medicine, dentistry, law, mathematics, physics and foreign languages,” (F&B 43). However, this expansion often excluded Black G.I.s from entering segregated spaces. Yet again, attempts to equalize access to education for Americans was followed by subsequent blockades to Black participation.This pattern of advancement in higher education for all Americans, followed by betrayals of access to minorities accentuates the ever-widening gap between this country’s rich elite and poor/middle-class workers. The Zook Report was an attempt to intervene through analysis and reflection, offering equality of opportunity to all in this constantly shifting democracy. Prophetic but not viewed as practical at the time, the Zook Report provided an utopian vision for higher education, embraced early by two states of the union, California and New York.
In America, access to viability in the capitalistic market with scientific innovation was monopolized historically by the academic elite, funded by wealthy, (and again) elite capitalists, in both academia and invention respectively. Science education was polarized between Industrial training and medical professionalism. During Booker T. Washington’s life at Tuskegee, despite creating goods and services needed by Whites in the community, Black American products and inventions were not welcome in the open market. Particularly prevalent throughout Black American history, product patents were often stolen by white land and slave owners, who later capitalized on Black inventions. It wasn’t until the introduction of the G.I. Bill that 4-year scientific studies become an educational pathway for larger public participation in scientific study and professional pathways, based on meritocracy and necessity. Patriotic allegiance and military service earned tuition for otherwise inaccessible amounts of tuition to sons of the working class. Veterans packed public and private universities in New York and California. Both states were, “at the forefront of a national movement to expand higher education opportunities for citizens from the late 1940s through the early 1960s by providing expanded college access, supported by state and federal funds and at little or no cost to students” (F & B 58).
In New York, Governor Rockefeller continued expanding campuses in the SUNY system, while stubbornly pushing to abolish CUNY’s free tuition system. Despite his unsympathetic efforts, CUNY remained tuition free and welcomed Albert Bowker as CUNY’S second chancellor in 1963, ushering in the idea of open admissions for all New York City high school graduates. CUNY pioneers the, “long deferred dream first fully articulated in the 1947 Zook Commission report…: ( F&B 84) offering tuition free higher education available to any high school graduate.
Dispersal of knowledge in America is highly controlled throughout education history. The battle between democratic ideals and caste-based social hierarchy determines which citizens (and non-citizens) are allowed to enjoy freedom’s success. Higher education has evolved into the most powerful tool in building the country’s wealth for the wealthy. Interestingly, access to technology and the internet rapidly erodes the knowledge gap for learners today, providing foundational access to thrive in higher education.
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