From the TSHA: Junior-College Movement

 A look at how institutions like ACC and HCC came to exist.

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The success and growth of the two-year college in Texas was one of the state's most significant developments in education. The junior-college movement in Texas began in the 1890s. Decatur Baptist College (established 1891 or 1892; now Dallas Baptist University) has been credited with being not just the first junior college in Texas, but arguably the first in the nation as well. These two-year schools were usually church-sponsored and offered courses similar to those in the first two years of four-year colleges and universities.

The first publicly supported junior college in Texas was established in Wichita Falls in 1922, and subsequently the junior-college movement grew most rapidly in the public sector. Usually the public junior-college district was based on the boundaries of an existing independent school district, and the junior college was established as an extension of the high school. Ordinarily, it shared the physical facilities of that school, normally after the end of the high school's daily schedule. Though state recognition and authorization for funding did not occur until 1929, seventeen public junior colleges were established between 1922 and 1928 as auxiliaries of the public schools; they were under the administration of these local school districts' boards of trustees.

In 1929 the state legislature validated these colleges and provided a process whereby additional junior colleges might be established. This legislation gave specific taxing powers to the local school districts for the junior colleges. Many taxpayers saw the new junior-college tax as nothing more than a surcharge on current school district taxes. In 1941 the legislature granted direct state aid to the junior colleges in the amount of fifty dollars per full-time student. Also, the Texas Education Agency became the supervisory agency for junior colleges. As junior colleges were seen at this time as an extension of secondary education, this administrative arrangement seemed most appropriate.

The Texas Education Agency continued as the supervisory agency for junior colleges until 1965, when junior colleges were placed under control of the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University System, now known as the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. This move solidified the position of junior colleges as institutions of higher education. However, not included in the 1965 authorization were supervision over programs under approval authority of the State Board of Vocational Education, and construction financed by local property taxes.