The Alaska daily empire., 1920-09-27
SCHOOL BUDGETS MUST BE DOUBLED FOUNDATION SAYS
Trends of School Costs Are Listed by Noted Educator
 In Official Report.

NEW YORK, Sept. 27-School bud gets in American cities should be twice as large as before the war ac- cordihg to an analysis of public schools statistics just given out by the Russel Sage Foundation. The report maintains that teachers salaries should now be double the pre- war figures in order to obtain the same qualities of educational service The Irost of school buildings is declared to have been treble in the last five years.
 These findings are made public in 2 volume entitled Trends of school Cost" The author is Dr. w. Rand lph Burgess, assistant director of Inc department of education of the Russell, Sage Foundation. The study is an aplication to the field of edu- cation of the method of the index number, The volume is a companion to "The Index Number For State School Systems" by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, which made a comparison of the efficiency of the school system of different states. -. .a
 Salaries Compared.
 Dr. Burgess compared the salar- ies paid to teachers with those paid 10 labors and artisans for 80 years and finds that the wage paid to young women teachers in country ~chools have increased from S2.5o a week in 1S4l to $17,50 now, an in crease of 600 percent. Salaries of women teachers in cities show sim Jar increase from about $4.50 to |! 35l50 a week Men teachers receive luch smaller relative increases. Up to 1915 teachers received per centages salary nearly twice as great IS artisans and labors, Dr. Burgess finds; but in spite of the increase he average pay of teachers has rever risin as high as wages paid { ), such artisans as blacksmiths, car renters and painters
 During the five years since 1915 the salaries of teachers have increas- cd on the average of 45 percent as compared with 100 per cent increase i il the wage of labors and artisans, glys a summary of the report. This l ok in teachers salaries behind the general raise in prices has wiped CIt all the gain that was made since | the time of the Civil war. A compar- | isan of teachers salaries and the ; cost of the, necessities of life each year for the past so years makes it clear that in the past two years the i purchasing power of the teachers aaary has been less than at any ether time since the Civil War. The report maintains that the only way t) obtain efficient teachers in service fnd at the same time attract able II en and women to teaching school liz to bring salaries to a level cor aspoading to the level of the wages | il other occUpations, and the level Of the cost of living. This is taken to lne9n bringing salaries to point 1 'urt double the pre-war figures"
 Estimating the probable levels Of achool expenditures during the com ling few years. the conclusion is drawn ivy MT Burgess that to buy the same i amount of educational service in 1920 and 1921 as in 1915 it will be neces- 1 sary to double the school budget. In he light of price and wage fiuctu- l ations in the past and particularly ! at the time of the Civil War, lt 1 is predicted that no large recreases in prices or wages are to be anti l cipated immediately but that expend- itures on the enlarged scale will be necessary for a number of years. Considering ways to meet the de sired increase in property and partl eularly on land can be further in creased without disaster. The wide
 range of tax rates in different large
 cities is cited to indicate that there
 is no economic limit which has beer reached in many cities.