Comparatively new in the Kansas educational system is the municipal junior college. Thirteen are maintained, with an approximate attendance of 4,000, and eight similar institutions are under parochial control.
In addition to the five State colleges financed by biennial legislative appropriations, there are eighteen private institutions of higher learning; but the enrollment of the latter group is equal to only one-third of the total for colleges. Four are Catholic institutions, three Methodist, while the Mennonites, Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Dunkards each sponsor one or more. These institutions are supported from tuition fees, private contributions, and small endowments.
Wichita Municipal University, formerly Fairmount College, was acquired by the city at a special election in 1926. It is the only municipally owned institution of higher learning in Kansas. Since 1926 its enrollment has grown from 400 to approximately 2,000, including 700 Wichita citizens in its extension department.
Adult education, through public night schools and the extension service offered by the State university and other State-maintained colleges, has developed rapidly in Kansas since the early 1920*5. Many of the larger cities offer vocational training and academic courses in public night schools, sponsored by the board of education. The Topeka night school, which opened in 1926 with an enrollment of 634, reached an attendance peak of 2,248 in 1933. In 1936 a total of 4,443 persons were enrolled in vocational education classes throughout the State.
The Statewide educational program, sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, has enabled many districts with inadequate funds to offer adult education. On August i, 1937, there were 18,709 persons enrolled in eleven types of classes at 567 educational centers. Courses included literacy and naturalization, workers' education, public affairs, parent education, homemaking, vocational education, leisure time activities, correspondence instruction, nursery schools, general adult education, and freshman college subjects.