Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-11
PUBLIC SCHOOL, ACCOMMODATIONS.
Of Several Recent.
Published Figures.

Inconsistencies Of Several Recently
Published Figures.
To the Editor of The Evening Star:
In your issue of March you publish a
communication from Taxpayer with some
editorial comments. 1t is there said that
"at the Office of the superintendent Of pub
lie schools it is said the information i'm
piled in the above cTaxpayer's) COM
munication is misleading" Taxpayer
believes he is innocent of the charge Of
attempting to ''mislead" any one, but he
must say that he is not responsible for
the figures used, for they were prepared
for the Senate document in the same office,
which your reporter visited, and were pub
lished in said document (No. 90, Fifty-third
Congress, third SESSION., copy of which
any of your readers can procure for them
selves, examine and correct any errors
taxpayer may have made. Some of the
statements in said document are not as
specific and definite as is desirable, but
taxpayers Information in every particular
is based upon the figures of that document,
so that the charge of misleading" must
be laid at the door of the school officials"
or of your reporter. The exact number of
buildings is not at all essential. except as
to their location, but the number of school
rooms is very essential. our reporter
seems to have been informed that 1.-The
number of school rooms owned and rented
is 534. But the Senate document shows
that there are at least 1I2 school rooms,
including DDS for the colored schools. This
is misleading information" but who is
to be blamed? Surely not Taxpayer" But
let it be understood that Taxpayers state
ments have no reference to high schools
nor to normal schools nor to industrial
schools. Again your reporter says: Some
of these county schools are very small af-
fairs and the school officials think they
should count very little in the statistics of
capacity" But school room is a school
room, and usually contains room for fifty
six seats for pupils, whether in a large or
a small building. Reporter also says that
all the larger county schools-at Brook
land, Tenleytown and Giesboro-are repre-
sented as being crowded beyond their ca
pacity." But the Senate document shows
that in the four Brookland schools there is
vacant room for los more pupils and in the
Tenleytown four schools there is vacant
room for 104 more pupils, but it shows no
report of Giesboro. These facts look like
misleading information" Again, Decem-
Der Is said to be an unfavorable month to
take as a standard. From the best infor-
nation which Taxpayer can gain the
enrolment for December is as large or
larger than for any other month, but the
average enrolment will become less and
less until the end of the year. The SUPER
intendent's annual report gives no record
Of the monthly attendance, which, if care
evidence of the true demand for more
school rooms Your informant makes an
other misleading statement" that the en-
rollment of pupils in all schools, white and
21,o0o, whereas the Senate document saws
the average enrolment is IS, 419 and the
capacity is 1925. Who is correct?
AGAIN, your informant says that the
Wnole enrolment of pupils gives an aver
age Of about fifty pupils in each school for
the eight grades. But the whole number
enrolled furnishes no accurate test of
either the capacity or of the average en-
roHment 1t Is possible, and quite proba-
BILE, that the whole enrolment of some
SCHOOLS may be seventy or eighty when
they can seat only fifty-six, and when the
average attendance may not be over forty
The capacity can be found by multiply
ing the number of rooms by Sc; thus 7S2
into 81 equals 49, 32. The number of half
day schools estimated at so, will give 952
schools. into SO equals 53,3I2 which is
about equal to the whole school population
of this District; yet thousands Of our chill
dren are instructed in private and pa
rochial schools.
To give the whole enrolment as the ba-
sis for increased accommodation actually
needed is grossly misleading" And yet
this Is what the school authorities have
been actually doing.
The superintendent last annual report
gives 80 as the number for each room while
on page Il of said report the number ~ is
given as the average enrolment, so OBJ
scurely placed AS scarcely to be noticed.
Why was this done?
But Taxpayer may be allowed to say
that he is no novice in the history Of the
management and conduct of Washington
schools. and he desires to refer to what
your reporter says about halliday schools.
Being patron of our Central High
School," he has learned that those full
grown pupils are required to spend on an
average no more than two and a half
hours daily in actual instruction. and that
during the last month february the ma
tional Department of School Superintend-