The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-09-23
SCHOOL BUDGETS in
CITIES TOO SMALL
Survey BY Russell Sage Foundation
Shows Appropriations Should Be
Twice as Much as Before War.

New York, Sept. 22.-School budgets |
in American cities should be twice as
large as before the war according to
an analysis of public school statistics
just given out by the Russell Sage
Foundation. The report maintains that
teachers salaries 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 treb1ed 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 educa-
ton of the method of the index num-
Der. The volume is a companion to
THE Index Number For State School
Systems by DR.. Leonard P. Ayres,
which made a comparison of the eff
| cheney of the school systems of differ
| ent states.
DR.. Burgess compares the salaries
| paid to teachers with those paid to la
| borers ~and artisans or 80 years and
| finds that the wages paid to young
/ women teachers in country schools
have increased from $3.50 a week in
| 1745 to $3.50 now, an increase of 500
per cent. Salaries of women teachers
in cities show a similar increase from
about $3.50 to $3.50 a week. Men
| teachers received much smaller rela-
| tive increases.
IN nCt,n
| centage increases in salary nearly
| twice as great as artisans and la
borers, DR.. Burgess finds; but in spite
| of the increases the average pay of
| teachers has never risen as high as
wages paid to such artisans as black
| smiths, carpenters and painters.
During the five years since 1915
| the salaries of teachers have increased
| on the average of As per cent as COM
pared with a summary of the report.
| This lag in teachers salaries 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 salaries and the cost of the
necessities 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 tecah-
ers in service and at the same tire at
| tract able men and women to teaching
is to bring salaries to a level CORE
spending 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 a point just double
the pre-war figures"
Estimating the probable levels of
school expenditures during the coming
| few years. the conclusion is drawn by
DR. Burgess that to buy the same
amount of educational service in 1920
and 1921 as in 1915 it will be neces-
sary to double the school budget. In
the light of price and wage fluctua-
tions in the past and particularly at
the time of the Civil War, it is pre-
dicted 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 the ways to meet the
desired increase in school expenses,
DIR. Burgess says he believes the tax
rate on property and particularly on
land can be further increased with
out disaster 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.