The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1920-06-17
EDUCATIONAL.
To School Officers, Editors, and Al
Others Who May Be Interested:

This is a query that has come to me
often since the recent announcement
of the report of the Russell Sage Foun-
dation. In the first place l should like
to state what this report does not do:
l. 1t does not tell or attempt to tell
how good or how poor the work in our
Wisconsin school rooms is. The men
who figured out the results probably
never saw the inside of a Wisconsin
class room.
q They took no note of our private
or parochial schools and the pupils that
attend them. Such pupils were mot
in school" according to the report, and
the money cost of educating this large
group was not in any way credited to
the state.
g. The report relates to the eXpendi-
ture of money for teachers salaries
and other school purposes Gin country
and city, in the grades and in the high
SchoolS-nothing more and nothing
less. 1t also takes account of the at
tendance of children Gall children of
school age) in the public schools be-
tween the ages of and Is. This was
for the year 1918. Needless to say, all
states were treated in the same way in
the report, and the results are therefore
relatively fairly comparable.
Wisconsin
Rank (from top)
l. Percentage of total school pupi-
lation attending public schools
daily ...............,., 80
2. Average days attended per child
of school age. e...,............ 20
3. Days schools were open. g
4. Attendance in high schools. ..... 10
Boys and girls in high schools. ..... II
6. Average expenditure per child
attending ..............,,.... ~
7. Average expenditure per child of
school age .....,............ 81
s. Average expenditure per teacher
employed ................... 20
8. Average expenditure per pupil
for non-salary items ........ 27
10. Teachers salaries per month
az in the year. .........,..... 80
Items on which we are below
=ssaverage.
General or average rank of Wiscon-
sin among the forty-eight states of the
union for the year 1918 on the items
mentioned above, thrtieth from the
top. What can you do to improve our
rating?
What, then, causes our low standing
according to the Report? From a
study of the above ratings it will be
seen that the reply is (D that we are
not spending as much money as most
other states for elementary and high
school purposes; (2) we are not get
ting our pupils into the schools and
keeping them there as well as the aver
age state does. Five items relate to eX
penditure of money by boards of edu
cation and five to attendance of pupils,
We have been too conservative in
spending money, and too careless about
getting children into school. That, in
nut shell, is the story of our low rat
ing.
Who is responsible? Every man and
woman in the state who has helped to
keep down expenditures for teachers
salaries, etc, and every careless parent
who has allowed his children to go to
school irregularly or stop too early,
| and every officer whose duty it was to
see that children attend school, but did
not do so.
The remedy is so plain that anybody
can see what it is,--incrcaSe our eX-
penditures for elementary and high
i school purposes, and see to it that
children go to sch0ol-at least during
the compulsory school age q to lD.
| Every school board that employed a
teacher for the year 1918 at a salary
less than 5000 for the year was pulling
down below the average for the United
States, and every board that employed
teachers at more than this was helping
to keep up our standing. OF course
the larger and weather. cities would,
all over the country, help to raise the
general level. The average salary for
the whole state that year-on a twelve
months basis--was $i403. For Min
nesota it was 1924, and for Illinois il
was S66.95. In other words, teachers
in Illinois got 80 per cent better sal
aries on the average than did Wiscon-
sin teachers. Is teacher who gets
only two-thirds as much salary a
poorer teacher? ! do not know; but
in the long run she Is likely to be
Have we not been too economical in
Wisconsin? Will it not sooner or later
tell against the children Of the state
and The state itself? If think it will
and have been saying 50 for years. We
have been economical and we have
probably got more than our moneys
worth, in past years, but we cannot
continue to do so, for many Of oui
best teachers are leaving for Other
states or going into other business
Since 1918 we have made rapid strides
in salaries, but other states have don,