Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-30
By BERTRAM BENEDICT.

Now that the tang of Spring has al
ready swept through the air, do your
Johnny and Mary Elizabeth look for
ward TO the closing of school? Do they
complain that the school term is too
long? And as for you, do you dread the
end Of the school term, when you'll
have the children upon your hands?
Or will it give Johnny and Mary Eliza
beth the chance to find some Summer
work and lay up some pin money?
In either case, it will be interesting
10 see how the school term In Washing
ton compares in length with the school
term in other cities, especially since
that question may well involve the sala-
ries of public school teachers here In
Washington, to which so large portion
of our city budget is necessarily devoted.
Length Of Term Compared.
A recent professional survey of serv-
ices rendered by l59 large American
cities to their citizens has taken up this
matter of the length of the public school
term. 1t found that in Washington 1t
was not quite midway between the long
est public school term reported for
city in the United States and the
shortest.
OF the 15s cities covered, SIS had
shorter school terms than Washington,
had the same and 81 had longer ones
OF the 10 cities nearest to Washington
In population, as estimated by the Fed
eral Census Bureau, eight had longer
school terms and two had shorter ones
Five of these cities are somewhat
larger than Washington and five are
somewhat smaller. They are located all
over the country, with two of them in
the Eouth. In their average length of
school term they ranked about 20 per
cent above Washington. The median
or midway, school term in these 10 cities
and Washington ranked also 20 per cent
above that of Washington.
However, the length of the school
term naturally varies with the locality
Of the city concerned. 1t will hence
give an idea Of how our school system
ranks on this item II we compare the
length Of the school term in Washing
ton with that in other cities In the same
part of the country.
The school term in Washington is
longer than that in Richmond and Nor
folk. It is shorter than that In Balti-
more, Wilmington and Pittsburgh.
Stands Well In Fairgrounds.
When school Is not In session, nothing
Is Of more Importance to the average
ehilds welfare than the presence of
parks and Fairgrounds. Is there q play
ground available to your Johnny and
Mary Elizabeth in Washington? And
are there enough places in Washing
tonS parks for you and them as breath
ing spaces when. the hot days come?
At all events. let us see how Washing
tons facilities in parks and Fairgrounds
compare with those Of other cities.
The professional survey referred to
above rated ia large cities of the
United States on their parks and play
grounds. The standard used was the
number of people In the city per acre of
park and playground.
There are only As Of these ia cities
which ranked above Washington in the
pa-k and playground space open to
their inhabitants. One hundred and
fifty-four cities ranked below Washing
ton in this all-important municipal
function
OF the 10 cities nearest to Washing
ton in population, of them larger
and 5 smaller, only 3 had q higher
ranking than Washington on extent Of
parks and Fairgrounds and had
lower. The average ranking of these 10
cities was about 10 per cent below that
of Washington. The city with the