The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1907-03-15
KY'S ILLITERACY
ILLUSTRATED
Only Eight States Have Great
err Per Cent. of Ignorance.
Small Pay For School Teachers
and Over 1000 Log
School Houses
(By Mrs. V. A Gllbert.1

BIO more SlIIhlHS iiluotid IOh Va 'hS
seyil effects of machine rule doninat-
ed by small politicians can be hac
thar the present system under which
Kentucky exists. Under it the State
ranks sc in the descending scale of iilit
eeracv. In cher words, there are only
States which have more illiterateS
THAR Kentucky. Including territorie:
she ranks 42nd in illiterary. Elimi'
mating the negro, Kentucky is no Ion
ger 36th but And in the descending
scale of education. About one-fiftl
scale pf education. About one-fifth oil
our entire population can neither read
nor write. This is deplorable and
SHOULD make the cheeks of every true
Eentuckian burn. Nor can we lay the
-flattering junction to our souls that
this state of affairs is caused by the
presence of the negro in our midst
Our negro population is much smaller
than Georgia, yet Georgia, has fewer
initerates than Kentucky.
For every 81 expended in Kentucky
Tor educational purposes, Indiana eX-
sleul- S1.49; Ohio. S1.S7. On the 9TH
er hand for every dollar earned III
Keuuckv. Indiana earns S1.57 and
Ohio Sl.45. I'm the 81 years between
1870 and 1902 the increase in school
expenditures in Kentucky has been
.3g:ju Georgia,.72; in Florida,.74; in
West Virginia, 1.O9; in Ohio, 1.13; in
Massachusetts. 1.37; in Illinois, 1.39;
in California, 2.29. Now, there is nc
better way of Judging a peoples at
.itudo toward popular education and
he value it places on the training OF
lrhe children, than to look at theil
scb1ol-houses, and certainly the schoo
houses of Kentucky tell a pitiful and
shameful story. The houses in which
are much better and more comforta-
ble than the houses in which their
.h5ldren are trained for citizenship
The work that has to do with mind
and soul and body, with the shaping
Of character and the making of ideals
is carried on in buildings that are
..uubied down and dilapidated. 1t is
said that nearly every county in the
state has a costlier and more comfort
abr ..iail than any rural school house
.lonnd in it. The ugly, desolate
schnJ house, with its depress'
inl effect and demoralizing influence
and the substantial, comfortable, awe
inspiring Jail follow each other in
natural sequence as cause and effect
There are in Kentucky l,23S old log
school houses, to say nothing of little
blank boxes, nearly as unsightly and
hardly as comfortable. There are in
ISenrvcky 2.107 schools without suit
abb seats and blackboards. Only
hinB OF it, nearly 100000 OF Ken
.ucky's children bumped over or
JaVuess slab benches, shivering with
,,old.ip the full blaze OF this TWEEN
ieth century, while searching for the
ong common division on broken
slate
There are 1854 schools without
globes. maps, charts and other educa-
.ional aids. This is more than hall
he schools in the State. For many
years Kentucky has been encumbered
with $4,000 school trustees. 5000
Of these can neither read nor write
and 10000 more have no conceptions
nj their duties or their responsible
lies These humiliating conditions car
not be explained upon the hypothesi:
hat Kentucky enrolls a larger percen
age of pupils in private schools than
are enrolled by the other States. Ac-
-ording TO the same reports, referred
20 above, only Florida and West Nir'
sinia, among the States mentioned
all lower than Kentucky in the per
crentage Of pupils in private schools.