Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-03-09
EDUCATORS CONGRESS
CALLED FOR MARCH q
SCHOOL BOARDS SUPERINTEND-
ENTS AND TEACHERS SUM-
MONED TO STUDY FINAN-
CIAL NEEDS.

Mrs. Josephine Corliss Preston,
state superintendent of public in
struction, Saturday called congress
of school boards, county and city gu
perintendents and class room teach
ers to meet in Olympia Monday,
financing the public schools of tn,
state. The meeting assemblies on
the same day that the legislature Is
called into special session and if new
legislation is found necessary it is
expected a recommendation will be
made to the lawmakers.
Mrs. Preston is in Washington, d.
c., but will leave the national capital
at once to prepare for the conference
Of educators. While in the East Mrs.
Preston has been in conference with
the United States bureau of educa-
tion and leading educators Of the
country, who have become alarme
at the shortage of teachers and the
failure of school boards to realize
that inadequate salaries are discouv
aging young people from entering
the teaching profession.
That there Is a shortage of teach
ers In this state has been declared in
interviews with Mrs. Perston. though
she points out Washington is in bet
ter condition than many of the states.
Teachers salaries in Washington
run as low as $3.50 year and in all
but half dozen counties of the state
the annual salaries fall below 5000 a
year.
Average Rural Salary 1921
The last report of the state super
intendent showed that the average
annual salary paid teachers in the
rural schools of the state was 1921.
The amounts paid in the larger coun-
ties and in the cities brings up the
average for the whole state, but in
the rural communities it has been
found almost impossible to keep
teachers at existing salaries. Even
the highest paid positions in Seattle,
educators point out, are no longer as
attractive as positions in other en-
ployment to which teachers can
quickly adapt themselves.
Asotin county has the distinction
of paying the lowest average salary
to rural or one-room teachers. In
that county the superintendent re-
port shows the average annual salary
paid to men teachers was $500.
There were three men employed in
Asotin county during the last school
year, and they drew a total of $1,17C.
The average annual salary paid won
en- teachers in the same county was
$596. Chelan county paid women
teachers an average of only $606.S6.
while two men between them drew
a total of $945 for the last year.
King county fell far below several
of the other counties of the state in
the average salaries paid to women
teachers in the country schools. In
King the average last year was
$793.70, while Kittitas paid $S5U.
Thurston $S31.76 and Mason
$8O4.65. In the little county of Wah-
kiakum. on the Columbia river. the
averape reached $802.50, though its
neighbor, Cowlitz. averaged but
$711.7O for women teachers, and just
east Of Cowlitz the women teachers
in the rural school Of Clarke county
were working for $663.33 a year.
May Draft Bill.
Possibly because of the prevailing
low salaries no men were reported
a steaching country schools in Grays
Harbor, Island. Kittitas, Skagit and
Yakima counties last year,
The Washington Educational Asso-
citation at its annual convention in
Seattle last year drew attention to
the low salaries paid in the public
schools and insisted that legislative
reform is imperative if the supply Of
teachers is to be kept up to the de-
mand The teachers have proposed
an increase in the state and county
taxes for the support of the public
schools as the only possible means
to providing sufficient funds for many
districts to meet their necessary eX-
penses.
Whether Mrs. Preston and the ed
ucators who will confer with her in
this city the 22nd will be able to