The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-21

has the same rank
 Conditions are improving, as one can easily tell. but the amount of improve
 ment needed is great. and the degree with which progress Is made is slow. It is estimated that, if Alabama's number
 of illiterates decreases in the decades from census to census in the future at the same rate as in the past, it will be @ years before Alabama and the people of Alabama reach the place they should reach when educational opportunity is equalized and utilized.
 Present School Attendance As to the degree of success the public schools are having in educating children. reaching the conclusions can be drawn by comparing the number of children of school age with the number enrolled in the schools.
 The school census 1914 showed 774,976
 children in Alabama of school age. Of
 this number more than half were white, 432,551 white and 342 425 negroes. Of these children the total enrolment in the public schools was 46s.154. or 63 per cent The
 number of white children enrolled was
 higher than that of negroes. being "A per cent.
 This means that 26 per cent of white
 children in Alabama did not enter the public schools during that school year. It does not mean that that al To fthis 2is per cent have never been in school.
 for some were in private schools. some
 have finished their education, even grad
 uating from high schools, and small proportion who will attend school had
 not entered. But the same thing is true in other states ,and yet where Alabama has 63 per cent enrolled, A states have from 64 to 90 per cent with Louisiana. Nevada, Texas and Alabama falling short.
 However, the school age in some states expires at IS, so that thep do not have to count the children past that age. Another weak point Is in the character of attendance. Of the children who were enrolled in the schools, many attended only a short part of the time and many schools were in session only a few months.
 The white children who enrolled attend ed 61 per cent of the time and the negro children 63 per cent of the time during which the schools were open to them. This means a loss of one-third of the time they might have attended school. It may be noted also that the figures here, in the character of attendance. are nearer the same for the two races than they gro for any other statistics. That is. the white and negro children attend school with almost the same per cent Of regularity, while in illiteracy. number en-
 rolling, number completing courses, and ether points the white children are con- siderably ahead.
 Easing the per cent of children at tending school upon the number Of children of school age instead of on the number enrolled in school. the whites show 50 per cent and the ne- eroes 30 per cent. In other words. bar ring exceptions made by children fin ishing school before the expiration or the school age limit, and by attendance upon private schools, the white chill dren get half of the educational ad- vantages open to them and the negroes lose two thirds of the efficiency of their schools.
 Length of School Terms Such attendance as this would be injurious to the efficiency of tho
 school if the terms were all nine or
 even eight months in length, but it Is worse when the terms in many
 places do not amount to any thing like that time. In the aggregate
 number of days the schools are open
 Alabama ranks 43. For the year of
 1913-14 in Alabama public schools, the
 average length of term was 135 days
 for the white schools and 10l days
 for the negro schools Town and city
 schools average higher, their average
 being 174 days for white schools and
 151 days for negro schools. In country
 districts and unincorporated territory.
 
 averaged keeping open 11s days, and
 the negro schools S1 days. The longer
 term for city schools and for white
 schools in the country in comparison
 with the negro country schools Is due
 to the fact that the former raise larger
 amounts of Supplements and fees and
 also to the method of distribution or
 public funds to the races.
 The number of days the schools are
 in session means little unless one looks farther and sees just what 1t means
 for a school to be open for 70 or 75
 CT for 10 days with an enrolment of
 three-fourths of the children of the neighborhood and with those children
 attending only three-fourths of tbe
 time.
 Suppose we were more explicit. Take, for example, the schools of Birming-
 ham. The session is nine months with
 90 school days in month--isC in
 school year, and the course Is seven years. A child Is supposed to enter at seven and complete the course at 14. when he attends the high school for four years and graduates at IS. He will then have had II years, 99 mcnths. or 1880 days in school: and
 most of this time he will be in actual
 attendance, as required. Now, in com
 rarison with that several counties in Alabama have a school term of but three and half or four months, 70
 or 80 days year; and conditions are
 such in the attitude toward the school, in the school itself and in it's sccessi-
 bility, that, he attends but part Of the
 time. For instance, in Marion county the rural schools have the three and half months session.
 If pupil in one of those schools were
 to attend every day the school was in
 session it would take him more than IT
 years to complete the seven-year gram
 mar grade course as it Is given in Bir-
 mingham Allowing no absences from
 school and no loss of time and interest on account of the many breaks in the
 terms of those II years. he would be be-
 tweer. "A and 25 years of age when he fin ished the grammar school.
 However, he does not attend all the time, but 63 per cent of the time. This, in Marion county. would mean A days year. Now. to attend two months year would make a 99-monthg course extend over most of the child's life.
 And as to high school attendance, it can readily be seen that when the gram mar school education is matter of so much time and such uncertainty, the high school education is rarely attained. The boy or girl who has such long. broken