The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-23
WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN, Counties Report Consis-
 tent Losses. LOSS so FAR UNIFORM Notable Decrease in the School
 Census. This Decrease Is Reported From the White Counties as We'll as the Black Belt cOunties--New Methods of Counting Have
 Been Introduced. 

| Where have. the school children l gone?
 Montgomery is not the only city .hai I is puzzled by this question. Nor Is il | the only community that Is echoine 1 the query. Montgomery mas her trou- hles and other towns and cities have 1 theirs. It fr all about thls school ccn- sus.
 The educators, those familiar with the new Alabama laws on census-tak- ing. look upon the school children shortage as a conccience wave. It has struck in all parts e. thu State and there seems to be no end of its course until September 1. Then all the re- ports of the sixty-seyen counties will have been forwarded to the State De- pertinent of Education.
 Montx ouiery has been in a stew over the children shortage. If the first cen- sus reports had been accepted the city would have fallen short many, many names. It would have meant the loss of more than s2,000 to the schools of the city by the apportionment of funds of the State set aside for this county
 The Advertiser reporter was told that the shortage lay in other direc- tions than right here in our midst. There were whispers of some sort of plague which had moved down the school children throughout the State. He went to the Department of Educa- ton at the Capitol yesterday to find facts as told the reporter by the clerks in the Department of Education: That seven county superintendents of education have reported the official census of school children taken in July last.
 That every county so far has re- ported a failing of of children of school age since the last census was taken two years ago.
 That the County of Dallas. which had reported 2o.443 cnildren of school age in 1906, now h<ye certified to onlS 1s,410
 1906 reported I3,030 children of school age now say they only want to draw money for 12,26s children.
 That the County of Perry which in 1906 certified to a census Of 13.s6s, TOW report a decrease in school children down to 1I,2ss.
 That Bu, .ock county after filing 8 report two years ago showing 1i,S55 school children now modestly put in a census of io.750.
 That good old Tallapoosa. which in the last two years has drawn funds from the State on basis of I1.467 chil- dren now puts in claim on a basis of only HIT.
 That the remarkable decrease of nearly fifty per cent was shown in the figures compiled for Uniontown this year as compared with the census of 1906. that the City of Selma reported falling of of i,130 children and Brew ton a decrease of 245.
 Asking certain asIte observers of the statistical situatioa vita reference to Alabama public schools. the reporter found that in reality a "conscience'' wave has struck the State. That one of the stifhulants of the Community" conscience has been a change in the methods of enumeration this year and in the future as compared with the past. That up to this year enumera- tors had no provision for their pay and their reports could not be pun ished with a heavy fine and imprison- ment for. hard labor R they were padded" or fraudulent at all. That now the compensation of the enumer- ators everywhere is guaranteed by salute to be paid by the county boards of revenue or courts of county com missioners.
 Another consolation found for the counties which have reported short on children is the seeming uniformity of accurate enumer ation. This means that the per capita to be apportioned to the cities and districts will be larger than before and that In the long run there will be no loss of funds.
 Still those counties which have re- ported short are expectantly awaiting the general run of the other counties. And when 1t is all over a concert of sighs will go up from the State.