The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1921-06-21
SMALL is COST
OF u, S, SCHOOLS
Commissioner of Education Gives
Figures of Expenditures
in This Country.
AVERAGE is s515 FOR PUPIL
Counting Children of kindergarten
Age There Are More Than Thirty
Million Children of School Age in
the United States.
BY P. p. CLAYTON.

n BY p. p. CLAYTON.
: Omitted States Commissioner of Educa-
tion.)
Considered alone, expenditures for
I public education in the United States
may seem large. Figures and COM
PARSONS recently published in many
newspapers show how small they are
when compared with expenditures for
other purposes, public and private.
These expenditures are also small
in comparison with the number of chill
dren to be educated. We forget how
numerous a people we have come to
be. In thinking of hundreds of mil
lions of dollars for public schools, we
forget that there are tens of millions
Of boys and girls to be educated
| Keenly conscious of the size of the
dividend, we forget the size of the
divisor. We forget that there are
in the United States more than TWEEN
| ty.seven million boys and girls between
the ages of six and nineteen-that is,
| between the age at which children
| in most states enter school and the
age of those who graduate from the
high school having gone through the
grades of the elementary school with
out the loss of more than one year.
If children of kindergarten age are
counted in there are more than thirty
millions.
The Cost.
Just how much do we pay for the
education of these children?
The first of three tables giving de-
tails show how much was spent on |
an average in the public schools of
each of the states for the education |
of each child of the generation of |
children entering school in the fall |
of 1905 and reaching the normal age |
of high school graduation in 1918. |
The figures given in each case show
as nearly as can be computed from re-
ports made to the United States bu-
reau of education just how much has
been spent to make all the difference
between total illiteracy and the lack
Of all school training Of this genera
ton of boys and girls and that which
they did get in the public elementary
and high schools May it therefore
fairly be taken as the measure of the
value Of such education in the minds
of the people? 1t should be remem-
bered that these figures include not
only the cost of instruction.; but also
for buildings, grounds, J
equipment repairs, fuel and all Incl, {
dentals, including in many cities and
states books and supplies.
The range is from 1858 per individ- i
nal person in Alabama and Mississippi a
to $637 in Montana, the Montana rate q
being almost exactly ten times that a
If Alabama and Mississippi. The Ill t
nois range is $500 The average for c
he United States is only $252 a
Comparisons.
In a country in which we blithely =
that all things wait on =
ducation-the public health, material
prosperity and wealth, social purity, y
ivic righteousness, political wisdom, :,
he strength and safety of state and
alton, and, finally, the thing for which
II these exist-that is, the individual T.
-elfare and happiness of the people
we have recklessly C'recklessly" is p
robably the word) spent 1852 per
HID that the attainment of all these
lings may be assured. Since less
ian 70 per cent of all the money ex-
ended for public schools goes for in he
ruction, only $175 of the 1922 was NJ
aid for actual instruction. We fire. "a
1ently have complaints that the in w,
ruction and training of the boys and DC
rls who leave the schools is not as ar
,tensive and thorough as it should
. What should we expect for $175? ga
For the generation of boys and girls tn
aching the age of high school gradu- In,
ion in 1905 the average per capita wi
Is $40. For the elementary and ice
cOndary education OF the million of
IN and women In the United States ar,
W between the ages of twenty lone a
d thirty-five the average paid was &c
DO. tbi
An average. yoV
The second table shows what would me
spent on the average for the edu-
lion Of each child Of those (s0me- !
ng more than two and a quarter I
|li0ns) who reached the school age figf
six years Ia 1913 if the average ex- ing
lditures for that year were to be oak
ltinued until 1881 when these boys inst
] girls will have reached the nor 1t
age of graduation from the high mic
DOL. In only one state would the
cunt be less than 500, and the av-
&c for the United States would be {, -
3. The figures for Montana (S1274) &
no doubt too large, the number &
children of school age in that state
1918 being larger than the number 3
,ulated on this basis of the est- &
.es of the total population made 4
the bureau Of census. The same 3
robably true, but in smaller de- q
!, for California ($54O). Illinois &
rage in this table is the same as
he first, $685. 4 .
he third. table shows how much 6
he rate of expenditures in 1918