The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1920-08-19

| DGlOW average,
1t will be observed that it is not, ex-
cept by inference, a report on the eff
report of a statistical kind worked out
in a New York Office by men who do
not know, and who do not pretend to
know, anything about the actual eff
cheney of our school system. The re-
port is based on just two things,
namely, (a) expenditure of money for
public schools, up to and including the
high school, and (b) attendance at
public schools, including the length of
the school year.
Wisconsin is not falling in educa-
tional deficiency as compared with
herself, but is steadily climbing up
ward, according to this same report.
| The Index figure, which is too tech
nica to explain here, in 1890 was
3O.99; in 1900, 3i,3l; in 1910, 1929;
and in 1918 it was 51.3+. Roughly the
report regards these figures as per
cents of efficiency as based on an ideal
not an actual system.
1t may then be asked in what re-
spect Wisconsin is slipping back or, in
other words, why some states are APP
lparently forging ahead. 1t is largely
| for the reason that states that seemed
to be making great progress in l9l7-lS,
| the year on which this report was
| based, are states that for sonIe reason
or other have found it necessary or
desirable to spend large sums of
money. 1t is obvious that this would
be especially true in the newer states
and in states where the city popula-
ton is increasing rapidly, thus necessi-
tating a large amount of building and
| equipping of schools. Take the Canal
Zone (Panama) as an illustration: The
| United States government in l9l7-lS
did good deal of building in order
that the employees of the government
in that region might have good school
! facilities. 1t was found necessary to
pay high prices in order to get good
teachers Therefore the Canal Zone for
l9l7-lS has a rather high ranking. The
same argument applies to some of the
rapidly developing states in the west.
1t would be a senseless and unneces-
sary waste of money for Wisconsin to
try to keep pace with such emergency
| expenditures. 1t would in no sense be
proper economy; and there is such a
thing as proper economy in education
as in everything else.
The shallowness and inadequacy of
this Russell Sage report, from the
point of view of school efficiency, can
| be appreciated when the reader real
| Ives that the standing of our state
would have been the same in this par
ticular year and in this particular re-
port If we had not had state uni
| verSitv, or a single normal school, or
a single county training school, or a
state department of public instruction,
or any kind of supervision other than
the local supervision in cities. 1t would
| have been the same if not teacher in
| the state of Wisconsin had been be
yond the eighth grade in the way of
preparation for teaching This is true
| for the reason that the only questions
asked and answered are (a) To what
extent did the children attend public
school in 1917-1S and (b) How much
did the elementary and high schools
cost including building and equipment
in that particular year?
NO state in the union has a better
system of teacher training or of super
vision, than Wisconsin, but this fact
counts for nothing in the Ayers re-
port. 1t is wholly ignored.
Since the year of this report, Wis
consn has had an awakening with re-
spect to the. salaries of teachers that
is very gratifying, So far as | have
been able to learn, few states will go
beyond Wisconsin in percentage of in
crease of salaries for the coming year.
The year of the report we were below
any other of the north central states,
except Missouri, in our money expen-
ditures am confident we were get
ting as good results owing largely to
our training of teachers and our vari-
GUS kinds; but there would seem to
have been on the part of the people
too great a conservatism in voting
money for elementary and high
schools. Standards could not be kept
high for any great length of time on
low expenditures
There is one thing that the Wiscon-
sin legislature should do and that is
provide statute with teeth in il that
will compel school attendance in every