The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1914-11-13
CONDITION IN The JAIL
BETTER Than IN SCHOOL
With Country Schools Usually Being
In Rundown Condition, They
Make Little Appeal to Either
Pupil or Teacher

Washington. Nov. 13.-One farmer
with a cheap automobile has more in
vested in that one piece of mechanism
than the average rural community as
a whole has in its 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 maintenance of the school,
Including the teacher 5 salary. This is
one OF a number of significant compari-
sans brought out by Nv. F. Feagin,
state superintendent of Education for
Aiabama, in a survey reported to the
United States Bureau of Education,
To Illustrate further the plight of
( he schools. superintendent Feagin
Shows a dilapidated rural school in
contrast with the handsomely con
structed jail in the same county, cost
ing several thousand dollars. "This
jail, he says, has sanitary drinking
fountains, shower baths, clean floors,
Ienty of light, good ventilation and
is. otherwise attractive. Could a person
from this district in which this school
is located be blamed for preferring the
iail7n
Naturally country schools make lit
tie appeal either to pupils or teachers,
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 sur
vey only so completed the work of the
fourth year of the high school. Of
the teachers, 6 per cent. are holding
their present positions for the first
time. Of the remainder. Is per cent.
are teaching their second session in
their first school, and only 19 per cent.
have stayed more than two years in
the same place.
The Alabama survey was an attempt
TO provide definite background on
facts on which to base a campaign for
Improvement, The controlling purpose
of the investigation was not to estab-
lish 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 of
ticials of the State education depart
ment, who selected three typical coun-
ties and personally visited the schools.
The results will be used for definite
improvement in the schools of the
State.
ht NohulllOHS IOuUu are DN 10
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 court house and jail together was
greater than that of all the school
houses, 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 conspcu-
Gus because it is carefully drawn
picture of the traditional public indif-
ference to the problem of adequate
support for schools in rural communi-
ties. We still spend much more for
luxuries--even harmful luxuries-than
we do for education. Until a communi-
ty spends at least as much for educa-
tion as it does for any on eof the ma.
terial necessities of life-food, cloth
ing and shelter-it is not doing its
full duty''