The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-09-17
SCHOOL COSTS l
 HAVE TREBLED IN FIVE YEARS

New York, Sept. 17.-School ouo- gets in American cities should pc twice as large as before the war ae- cording to an analysis or puDiio school statictics just given out py lhe
 Russell Sage Foundation. The report
 maintains that teachers salaries
 should now be double the pre-war
 figures in order to obtain the same equality of educational service. Ihe
 cost of school buildings is declared to have trebled in the last five years These findings are made pubhc 1h a volume entitled "Trends of Schooi Costs, The author is Dr. w. Kan dolph Burgess, assistant director or the department of education Of the Russell Sage Foundation. The study is an application to the held or education of the method of the index number. The volume is a compan1on to .aThe Index Number for State l School Systems by Dr. Leonard P. Avres. which made a comparison of | the efficiency of the school systems | of different states.
 | pr. Burgess compares the salaries paid to teachers with those paid to 1aborers and artisans for 80 years l and IlnOS IItdI lliC "oSOo | young women teachers in country schools have increased from $2-5O week in 1s41 to 17.5o now, an in crease of 500 per cent. Salaries or women teachers in cities show a similar increase from about $45O to l s35.5O week. Men teachers re-
 ceived much smaller relative 1n- | creases.
 | Up to 1915 teachers received per centage increases in salary nearly l twice as great as artisans ana Ia borers, pr. Burgess finds; but Tn spite Of the increases the average pay | of teachers has never risen as hIgh 1 as wages paid to such artisans as
 b1acksmiths, carpenters and painters
 During the five years since 1913 | the salaries of teachers have 1ncreaS- i ed on the average of 45 per cent as I compared with a 100 per cent in | crease in the wages of laborers and
 artisans" says summary of the re- | port. 'eThis lag in teachers salar- 1 ies behind the general rise in prices
 has wiped out all the gain that was
 made since the time of the Civil War. A comparison of teachers sal aries and the cost of the necessities 1 of life each year for the past 80 years makes it clear that in the past two years the purchasing power of
 the teachers salary has been less l than at any other time since the Civil War. The report maintains
 that the only way to retain efficient | teachers in service and at the same time attract able men and women to ! teaching is to bring salaries to a l level corresponding to the level of l the wages in other occupations, and l the level of the cost of living. This 1 is taken to mean bringing salaries to
 a point just do4ple the pre-war | figures"
 Estimating the probable levels of
 school expenditures during the com l ing few years, the conclusion is ! drawn by Dr. Burgess that to buy | the same amount of educational ser { vice in 1920 and 1921 as in 1915 it | will be necessary to double the school 1 budget. In the light of price and wage fluctuations in the past and 1 particularly at the time of the Civil
 War, it is predicted that no large decreases in prices or wages are to | be anticipated immediately, but that | expenditures on the enlarged scale
 will be necessary for a number of | years.
 i Considering ways to meet the de-
 sired increase in school expenses, Dr.
 Burgess says he believes the tax rate
 on property and particularly on land | can be further increased without disaster. The wide range of tax rates in different large cities is cited to in | dicate that there is no economic
 limit which has been reached in many large cities.