New Iberia enterprise. (New Iberia, La.) 1885-1902, 1898-11-26
Extract from Report of State Superln.
tendeut }. V. Calhoun.

The percentage Of school enroll
ment compared with the school
population has increased in the last
six years from 30 to - II, not
withstanding the large increase in
the reported school population,
amounting 20 5O,632 children. In
1892, the report of the United
States commissioner of education
gave to Louisiana, on the authority
of the United States census, n per
cent Of 30 on the school enrolment,
and placed the state last on it's list
of illiteracy. The increased per
cent reached by the latest report
raises the rank of Louisiana several
places higher on this "merit roll y
II it be true rs has been by some
suspected, that the enumeration of
educables has been over estimated
in certain places, then the percent
age of enrolment should be still
higher. The most important i'm
provement of the department is, of
course, in the number of the state S
children actually in school-the
average number in daily attend
ance and this we preceive has
arisen from 81 600 to 132 900, being
an increase of 40, 900; that is, the
per cent Of attendance of the num-
Der enrolled has ascended from
62 to Y.
In the finances, too, there has
been an Improvement commensurate
with the power of the state authori-
ties and the state Legislature in the
matter. In the face of the very
onerous state debt and the heavy
demand on the state treasury to
maintain a reliable system Of pro-
tection-levees, and the support Of
the charity hospitals, the insane
asylum, and other highly expen-
sive eleemosynary institutions, the
state has appropriated to the public
school fund annually the sum of
$500, 900, to be apportioned among
the parishes in the ratio Of their
school population; and by en-
couraging and stimulating among
the people an ardent desire for the
education of their young, has con-
trived by local contribution, the
poll tax and the honest application
Of all school moneys, to have ex.
pended annually about 81 900, 900
for public education. At the last
comparison of Louisiana's school re-
ports with those of the other south
ern states, it was encouraging to
observe that our state stood third,
or next to Virginia and Texas, n
the average length of the school
term, which for Louisiana, was 500
months; and in the expenditure
per capita based upon the number Of
pupils enrolled. At the present
time the cost per capita Of the
number enrolled calculated upon
the amount actually disbursed, is
1927, which is believed to retain us
in the same relative rank in this
regard rs when the comparison was
last made.
The late constitutional conven-
ton Incorporated into the organic
law of the state several important
articles to perpetuate and enlarge
the public school, as tho property
of the state enhances III value and
its wealth of all kinds increases.
Article 24S provides for separate
schools for white and colored pu-
pils--a prohibition that was not
contained in the constitution of
1879. The same article admits
from 4 years Of age to
schools Of the kindergarten class
it also directs the Legislature to
provide for the correct enumera-
tion of the educable children of the
state, and it is greatly to be hoped
that this difficult problem will now
be satisfactorily solved.
The school revenues of the state
were benefited by the injunction
upon the legislature to set aside
for schools not less than Ia mills
Of the 6 mills tax levied and col
lected by the state. An addition
to the states school revenue of
nearly $50, 900 year results from
the passage Of the 26th article,
which frees the current school fund
from the payment Of the interest
on certain constitutional invest
ments Of money for education,
amounting in aggregate to 81 49,
I on ri