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IOWA OFFICIAL REGISTER | ||
COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Ted Stilwill, director; Iowa State Department of Education, Grimes State Office Building, Des Moines 50319; 515/281-3436; Website: www.state.ia.us/educate
The Iowa 61st General Assembly in 1965 approved legislation permitting the development of a statewide system of post-secondary educational institutions, identified as merged area schools, operated under the direction of the State Board of Education. The boards of education of county school systems were authorized to plan for the merger of county school systems, or parts thereof, to develop a merged area. Each merged area was required to have a minimum of 4,000 public and private pupils in grades nine through twelve. The merged areas were authorized to develop area schools as either area colleges or area vocational schools. The legislation permitting the development of the two-year colleges provided a procedure whereby the public junior colleges operated by local public school districts could be integrated into the community colleges. There were 16 public junior colleges operating in Iowa at the time the community colleges were organized. The first public junior college in Iowa, Mason City Junior College, was organized in 1918. All 16 public junior colleges merged with these new institutions. The Department of Education was to direct the operations of the development of merged area schools as either community colleges or area vocational schools (Chapter 260C of the Code of Iowa). A number of these merged area schools were formed from or later combined with existing public junior colleges. Merged area schools were also referred to as "area vocational or technical schools"" or "community colleges," depending on their primary mission. The statement of policy contained in the original enabling legislation and amended in 1967, 1985, 1990, and 1993 identifies the following categories as appropriate educational opportunities and services to be provided:
1. The first two years of college work including pre-professional
education.
Standards were developed in 1965 to facilitate the development of these post-secondary institutions. A new state accreditation process based on evaluation criteria were developed and approved by the Iowa State Board of Education in 1994. The provision for funding of area schools was provided through a combination of federal, state, and local funds, and students' tuition. Funding includes a local tax of 20 1/4 cents per $1,000 of assessed value on property within the merged area for operational funds and an additional tax not exceeding 20 1/4 cents per $1,000 of assessed value for the purchase of sites and construction of buildings. The levy for sites and construction must be approved by the voters in the merged area for a period not to exceed 10 years. General state aid was distributed to community colleges on the basis of line item appropriations by the General Assembly until 1986 when a state foundation aid formula was approved by the General Assembly. The individual community colleges have the authority to establish tuition. Tuition for residents of Iowa, however, is not to exceed the lowest tuition rate per semester, or the equivalent, charged by the three state universities. There are currently 15 comprehensive community colleges serving the 15 merged areas, including all of the 99 counties in Iowa. All 15 community colleges are approved currently by the State Board of Education. The 73rd General Assembly in 1990 changed the name - merged area schools to community colleges and a statutory council to the State Board of Education, the Community College Council, was established to advise the board on significant community college issues. | ||