The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-01-31
STATES SCHOOL S
New Jersey Spent Enormous
Sums Last Year On the
Education of Her Children
ONE PER CENT or RATABLEs
STATE SUPERINTENDENT BAx-
TER GIVES THE PUBLIC SOME
SURPRISING STATISTICS IN HIS
ANNUAL REPORT.
SPECIAL to ''The Jersey city News. .

Special to THE Jersey City News")
TRENTON, Jan. 80. 1906-The forth
coming annual report of Charles J. Bax-
ter, State Superintendent of Public In
struction. contains some surprising sta
tistics of the magnitude of the public
school interest. They will probably
prove a revelation to ali except the COM
paratiyely few people who study these
statistics intelligently in the annual re-
ports.
For the fiscal year 1904-5 the total
amount of money for public school pur-
poses aggregated S9,759, ,6o2s3. 1t came
from the following sources: Amount ap-
propriated from the state fund. 81 ,211,-
673,13; amount appropriated from in
come Of state school fund (riparian leas-
esq, $200,000; state school tax. $1,S01, :
911.92; amount raised by district school
tax, $6,546, oil. .2S.
This last item will cause many people
to open their eyes in astonishment The
general supposition has been that the free
public school system of New Jersey de-
rived its chief income from the 23. mills
state school tax. Until few years ago
this tax was collected directly out of the
taxpayers, but thirty-6ve per cent. of
this amount is now paid yearly out of
the surplus in the treasury, under the
system inaugurated by Governor Stokes.
when he was Senator from Cumberland
This state tax, including the thirty-five
per cent. appropriation last year amount
ed to 100000. which is less than one
third the total amount expended in the
support of our public schools. This is
supplemented by local taxes for the sup
port of the schools levied by the several
school districts, aggregating last year
S6,546011.2S. The total amount raised
for public schools in New Jersey is near
" one per cent. upon the ratables.
OF this total S5,20s, $3.50 last year
went for teachers salaries; $1,000, ,636.
Is for building. enarging andsrepajring
school-houses, and $435, ,427.75 for text
books and apparatus. There are 9,15T
teachers in the state, of whom S,03S are
females. The average salary of the
teachers is $56S.S3, being an increase of
$5.5s over the preceding year. The to-
tai value of public school property in the
state is $22,G94,076 and the Average
value of the 1886 school buildings is
$11,592 each. The total number of pu-
pills enrolled is 277, ,435, an increase of
1864 over the year before
Two items of disbursement that will
puzzle some people are these: For
transportation of pupils, $9,701.O7 and
for tuition of pupils in adjoining districts
S31,T51.99. The school laws of New
Jersey, as Superintendent Baxter ex-
plains in circular sent out to school
officers this week, provide that school fa-
cilities must be provided for every child
of school age in the State. If the child
lives too remote from a school in it's own
district it must be sent to the nearest
school in another district, and its trans
poNationeand tuition expenses must be
paid out of the school moneys in the dis
trict where the child resides. The attor-
ney general has given Mr.. Baxter an.
opinion unreservealy indorsing his views
to this effect. as set forth in his circular
Mr. Baxter says:
Realizing the Importance of education
as factor Of our future development, the
trainers of our State Constitution en-
bodied in this instrument the following
provision: The Legislature shall provide
thorough and efficient system Of free
public schools for the instruction Of all
children in this State between the ages
of five and eighteen years See article
4, section {, paragraph 6. To enforce
this mandate Of our fundamental law
each school district in the State has for
the past 30 years, under enactments of
varied phraseology but like intent, been
required to provide suitable school IA
cilities and accommodations fer all chill
dren of school age residing therein and
desiring to attend school, See Pamphlet
Laws. of 1871, chapter 257, section 8,
and Pamphlet Laws of 1904, special ses-
sion Of October, 1908, chapter /, article
10, section 126. These measures consti-
tute the basis Of our public school system,
and all enactments designed to make
them effective are equally mandatory in
purpose
Another section says: