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Throughout the late twentieth century, states created higher education systems, though with some variation in structure that is attributable to particular state economic, political, and social factors (McGuinness, 2013). The Kentucky Community and Technical College System examined for this study has evolved over time in response to key state legislation passed in 1934, 1962, and 1997. This evolution traces the evolution of the community colleges from independent public colleges to outreach centers of the state flagship university, and finally to a system of community colleges.
More recently, increasing enrollment and growth of the community college sector, as well as centralized organizational models embraced by other states, prompted state legislation in the 1962. This legislation, known as the Kentucky Community College Act, made the Board of Trustees of the University of Kentucky the legal governing entity of the community colleges (Newberry, 2006). The Kentucky Community College Act placed the community college system at the center of educational change and economic development as the General Assembly would authorize the addition of ten community colleges over the next decade, for a total of fourteen community colleges under the governance of the University of Kentucky.
Following the establishment of additional community colleges, the state initiated a restructuring of higher education with the passage of the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act in 1997 (House Bill 1). Governor Paul Patton was the chief architect of this legislation. Part of the restructuring involved creating a state coordinating board, which would be known as the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (formerly the Council on Higher Education). The Council on Postsecondary Education
(CPE) was charged with implementing quality improvement and accountability goals. The restructuring created the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) and transferred governance of thirteen of the fourteen community colleges from the University of Kentucky to the newly created system. Likewise, the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 transferred governance of the Kentucky Tech institutions from the Cabinet for Workforce Development to KCTCS (Garn, 2005). With this, an amendment to a previous statute outlined that the University of Kentucky may continue to operate a community college in Lexington, Kentucky, Western Kentucky University may continue to operate a community college in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Northern Kentucky University will provide programs of a community college nature at a community college in Covington, Kentucky. Though governance of all state community colleges was not transferred to KCTCS for its initial inception, KCTCS served as a model for the administration and governance of programs and services at those institutions.
In addition to structural and organizational changes, the transfer of governance of the community colleges altered the funding model for the system and corresponding community colleges. According to the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997, all funds appropriated to the community colleges, except for the community college remaining under the governance of the University of Kentucky, was to be transferred and allotted to the KCTCS Board of Regents. The KCTCS Board of Regents could divide the assets and funds among institutions within the system to meet the mission of the system. The intention of this revised funding model was to fund the community colleges at a level equivalent to or on par with the other public institutions;
however, transferring funds to KCTCS placed each of the community colleges in competition with one another and may have resulted in funding disparities within the newly developed KCTCS.
Since passage of the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997, KCTCS has become the largest provider of higher education and workforce training in the state. KCTCS is governed by CPE, the state coordinating board, and the KCTCS Board of Regents. Eight board members are appointed by the Governor and the remaining six are elected members. The elected members include two members of the teaching faculty elected by faculty, two members of the nonteaching personnel elected by nonteaching personnel, and two members of the student body elected by the student body. KCTCS maintains a foundation under the leadership of an independent board of directors. The KCTCS president’s cabinet includes the KCTCS president, four vice presidents, and one chancellor for academic affairs. The KCTCS president’s leadership team includes the KCTCS president, cabinet members, and presidents of each of the colleges within the system. Leadership at each college consists of a college president, a chair for the board of directors, and a chair for the college foundation.
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