The California Community Colleges Throughout the late 19th
century and early 20th century, states established public
colleges and universities, funded enrollment expansion, and
launched an experiment in social engineering. The result was a
transformation of the scope and purpose of American higher
education. California can be seen as leading this
transformation. California reflected the struggle of most other
states to coordinate their respective public institutions.
Issues of governance, autonomy, funding, and accountability
gained greater importance in local and statewide politics. As
the need of higher education in American society increased, the
number of public institutions grew. The cost to taxpayers
advanced these developments, but it differed in its early
development of a coherent organizational structure for public
higher education. In the Progressive Era, California established
and funded a groundbreaking, geographically dispersed system of
public colleges and a multi-campus state university . Calif