Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1963-02-07


major hurdle has now been cleared with approval
by the School Board Monday of budgetary item that
revves hopes the Rockville campus of Montgomery Junior
College be opened to estimated 1900 students by
September, 1864.
After much huffng and putting about the Junior Col
lege program and indicating grave msgngs about the
whole Junior College idea the four School Board
bers have acted wisely in leaving the door open for the
scheduled opening of this mportanand highly needed
facility
large site has been acquired construction money is
in the current budge-and available All that is needed
is $27603 for furnishings for the first buildings. The
longpanned carefully thought out proposal ready to co.
! But there are still two major obstacles.
One of these is necessary approval by the County
Council of the budget item for furnishings The other is
the necessity for final ahead from the School Board
again the four members because the three hodover
members heartily for itand then construction can
begin And not much time is left
1t has not been easy to keep up with developments in
the last two weeks since startled county residents learned
the entire Junior College program in jeopardy First
Board member Woodward urged the Rockville facility
be put the shelf Then it decided committee should
be appointed to study the proposal Board President Bell
then indicated he would name to the committee the four
board members who had already indicated msgvngs
about the Junior College program but reconsdered when
such idea struck the other three board membersand
the public attending the hearing-as highly irregular Then,
Monday Woodward after reconsideration initiated the
to approve the budget item for furnishings that is
absolutely necessary the institution to open schedule
in 1854 Then Bell announced he appointing to the
committee all members of the School Board to study
the question, with Woodward serving chairman of the
COMMITTEE" When is the School Board School Board
and when is it committee? All of this strange
way deal with highly important matter of public bust
ness.
What is needed now is promptly executed study by
the COMMITTEE and favorable report giving green light
to the facility Then the County Council should give
final approval to the program in its budget consideration
What to be bothering the four School Board
members is the philosophy of having publicly maintained,
toyear Junior college that any high school graduate
attend If he wants to- Yet the student must pay third
Of the tuition costs with the State and the county sharing
the remaining two tirds) This seems an eineny sensi-
bic approach to the growing problem of how to provide
some form of college education opportunity for hordes of
high school graduates who will not be able to attend regular
institutions of higher learning for economic scholastic
reasons but who still want to try their hand at college,
They should have this opportunity Both they and the
community will be richer for their having had it.
Writing in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Eugene B.
Power, chairman of the committee tuition of the Asso
citation of Governing Boards of State Universities and Allied
Institutions points out that the ow-ton principle has
been of the unique features of American public higher
education has, he points out revoutionized college
and university education In 1900 of the students attend
ing institutions of higher education only 20 per
IN public institutions In 1860, nearly so per cent
Our system he says envied and copied all the world
has vastly increased the nations supply of scholars and
specialists THE philosophy that embodes the lowtuon
principle is which recognizes that the unique character
OF the franchise democracy makes necessary that the
popuace be educated And he adds Education is neces
saTy to democratic form of government"
He goes ITO impose barriers to continued attend
ance in the form of tuition fees at the time of high school
graduation, is unsod it would be to impose such
barriers at the end of the fourth grade"
The question of whether we can afford to tamper with
this principle us momentouS one" he says And the
School Board and County Council should indeed proceed
with extreme caution in their deliberations on this matter
county students