Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-11-11
MONEY FOR RURAL SCHOOLS.

10 CnrlSlldn hospital. ID.
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MONEY FOR RURAL SCHOOLS.
One farmer with a cheap autOmO'
bile has more invested in that one
piece of mechanism than the average
rural community as whole has in
it's school plant; and the owner OF
the auto frequently spends as much
on the upkeep of his one car as the
community spends for the total main.
tcnance of the school, including the
teachers salary. This is one of a
number of significant comparisons
brought out by the Hon. w. F.. Feagin
State superintendent of Education
for Alabama, in survey reported to
the United States Bureau Of Educa-
ton.
To illustrate further the plight of
the schools, Superintendent Feagin
shows a diapidated rural school III
contrast with the handsomely con-
structed Jail in the same county, cost
ing several thousand dollars. "This
JAIL" he says. has sanitary drinking
shower baths, clean floors,
plenty of light, good ventilation, and
is otherwise attractive. Could a per
son from the district in which this
school is, located be blamed for pre-
ferring the jail?"
Naturally country schools make
little appeal either to pupils or
teachers,s under existing conditions.
Pupils drop out and teachers move.
Out of 5,423 pupils entering the first
grade in the schools inspected in the
Alabama survey only 60 completed
the work of the fourth year of the
high school. OF the teachers, 76 per
cent are holding their present posi-
tons for the first time. OF the re.
mainder, IS per cent are teaching
their second session in their first
school, and only 10 per cent have
stayed more than two years in the
same place.
The Alabama survey was an at
tempt to provide a definite back
ground on facts on which to base a
campaign for improvement. The con-
trolling purpose Of the investigation
was not to establish an opinion or
theory, but to find out the truth. The
survey was not made by outside
specialists imported for the occasion,
but by regular officials Of the state
education department, who selected
three typical counties and person
ally visited the schools. The results
will be used for definite improvement
in the schools of the state.
"The conditions found are by no
means peculiar to Alabama declares
DR.. Claxton, United States Commits
sioner of Education. "They can be
duplicated anywhere. In Tennessee
few years ago, for instance, inquiry
revealed that in several counties the
cost of the county Jail was greater
than the total cost of all the school
houses in the county, and in more
than half the counties of the state
the cost of the courthouse and jail
together was greater than that of all
the schoolhouses, while in majority
of the counties the average annual
salary of the teacher was less than
the cost of feeding prisoner in jail.
"This Alabama survey is co1spicu-
Gus because it is a carefully drawn
picture Of the traditional public in
difference to the problem of adequate
support for schools in rural commune
ties. We still spend much more for
luxuries-even harmful luxtries-
than we do for education. Until a
community spends at least as much
for education as it does for any one
food. clothing, and shelter-it is not
doing its full duty"
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