Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-09-19
CLAIMS BUDGETS SHOULD BE TWO
 TIMES AS LARGE
Statistics Tend to Show Ma tiOn Has Forgotten
 Teachers

New York, Sept. 18.-School bud gets in American cities should be twice as large as before the war ac- cording to an analysis of publi,a school statistics just given out by the Russell Sage Foundation. The report maintains that ~teachrs' sal aries should now be double the pre- war figures in order to obtain the same quality of educational service. The cost of school buildings is de- clared to have trebled in the last five years.
 These findings are made public in
 volume entitled "Trends of School Costs" The author is Dr. w. Ran dolph Burgess, assistant director of the department of education of the Russell Sage Foundation. The study IS an application to the field of edu- cation of the method of the index number. The volume is a compan- ion to "The Index Number For State School Systems" by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, which made comparison of the efficiency of the school systems of different states.
 Dr. Burgess compares the salaries paid to teachers with those paid to laborers and artisans for 80 years and finds that the wages paid to young women teachers in country week in 1841 to $17.5O now, an in schools have increased from $2.5O q crease of 600 per cent. Salaries of women teachers in cities show n similar increase from about $4.5O to $35.5O a week. Men teachers receiv- ed much smaller relative increases.
 Times Have Changed.
 Up to 1915 teachers received per- centage increases in salary nearly twice as great as artisans and la borers, Dr. Burgess finds; but in spite of the increases the averge pay of teachers has never risen as high as wages paid to such artisans as blacksmiths, carpenters and paint CTS.
 During the fiveyears since 1915 the salaries of teachers have in- creased on the average of Al per cent as compared with 100 per cent in- crese in the wages of laborers and artisans" says a summary of the re- port. "This lag in teachers salaries behind the general rise in price has wiped out all the gain that was made since the time of tn Civil War. A comparison of teaachers' salaries and tn cost of the ncssities 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 than at any other time since the Civil War. The report maintains that the only way to retain efficient teachers in service and atthe same time attract able men and women to teaching is to bring salaries to alevel correspond ing to the level of the wages in other occupations, and the level of the cost of living. This is taken to mean bringing salaries to pointjust double the pre-war figures"
 ' Estimating the probable levels of school expenditures during the com 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 budget. In the light of price and wage fluctuations in the past and 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.
 Considering ways to meet the de- sired increase in school expenses, pr. Burgess says he believes the tax rate on property and particularly on land can be further increased without dis aster. The wide range of tax rates in different large cities is cited to indicate that there is no economic limit which has been reached in many cities.