Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-11-10
MONEY FOR THE
RURAL SCHOOLS
Many Sections Show Lamenta-
BILE Lack of Interest in Chill
dren's Education, Though
Parents Must Have Their Au-
tomobiles.

Washington, Nov. s.-One farmer
with cheap automobile has more
invested in that one piece of mechan-
ism than the average rural commun-
ity as 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 teachers salary. This
is one of a number of significant COM
parsons brought out by the Hon. w.
F. Feagin, State Superintendent of
Education for Alabama, in a survey
reported to the United States Bureau
of Education.
To illustrate further the plight Of
the schools, Supt. Feagin shows a
dilapidated rural school in contrast
with the handsomely constructed Jail
in the same county, costing several
thousand dollars. This JAIL" he
says, has sanitary drinking fountains,
shower baths, clean floors, plenty Of
light, good ventilation, and is other
wise attractive. Could a person from
the district in which this school is To-
Gated be blamed for preferring the
jail?"
Naturally country schools make lit :
tie appeal either to pupils or teach
ers, under existing conditions. Pupils
drop out and teachers move. Out of
5423 pupils entering the first grade> in
the schools inspected in the Alabama
survey only so completed the work of
the fourth year of the high school.
OF the teahers, 76 per cent. are hold
ing their present positions for the
first time. OF the remainder Is per
cent. are teaching their second session
in the first SHOOT, 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
controlling purpose of the investiga-
ton 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 personally
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, de-
clares DIR. Claxton. U. s.. Commission
er of Education. They can be
duplicated anywhere. In Tennessee d
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 courthouse and jail to-
gether was greater than that Of an
the schoolhouses. while in a 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 con-
spicuous because 1t is a carefully
drawn picture of the traditional pub
lie indifference to the problem Of ade-
quate support for schools in rural
communities. We still spend much
more for luxuries--even harmful
luxuries--than we do for education.
Until community spends at least as
much for education as It does for any
one of the material necessities Of life
food, clothing, and shelter--it is not
doing it's full duty"