The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-11-27
MINNES0TA'S LARGE State
SCHOOL FUND EXPL aimed

Thief River Falls, s38,668; Proctor,
$50, $685.
Here are a number of smaller towns
that have picked up sizeable crumbs
from the states table; Crosby Ironton
s24,4 76; Coleraine, SCI 1887; Aitkin, s26,-
STA: Park Rapids, s25,830; Cambridge
s25,69O; Tracy, s19,315; Milaca SIS, SAT;
Glenwood s26,784; Staples, s28,134
There are dozens of villages of less
than 1000 population drawing from
$4,000 to $4,000 and even more.
The famous supplementary aid" law
accounts for the size of most of these
appointments. The village of Milaca
with a population of 1914 is a striking
example of the way this act works. The
supplementary aid law is designed to
aid districts in which, for one reason
or another, the maintenance of public
school is an exceptionally heavy burden
upon the individual taxpayer. The law
provides that levy of 20 mills in any
district will not raise $40 per pupil in
the district, the state will pay to such
district the difference between what 20
mills will raise and $40 per pupil. In
Milaca at the time the law was enacted,
a levy of 20 mills would raise only SIG
per pupil. Therefore, that year the
state paid to the Milaca school district
supplementary aid" to the extent of
s24 for each pupil of the Milaca schools.
The benefits of the supplementary aid
Ioy ,ciy 1Iry tn +In of
Northern Minnesota, for it is there
that the accumulations of property are
smaller and the cost of maintaining
public school bears down most heavily
upon the individual taxpayer. South
ern Minnesota can't work up any en-
thusiasm about the supplementary aid
law, but if it were not on the statute
books, the schools of Northern Mime
sofa in the last ten years would have
been seriously crippled. Today, many
of them would have to close their doors.
It is needless to say that the range
towns do not get a cent out of the
supplementary aid law.
The distribution of more than six
millions by direct legislative appro-
priation as aid to the public schools
has wrought a revolution in the public
schools of villages and cities to grow
like a green bay tree The state tuition
aid is a river of living water to the
high schools of the state.
Shortly after the enactment of the
aid law the Minnesota
cIaf1 +-,i1i
law by which the state agreed to pay
each school district what amounts to
$40 per year for each student enrolled
in any high school from an outside
district. As result of this law rural
districts are abandoning high school
and sending their children
to town. Many town high schools have
today more students from the country
than they have from town. Many towns
complain that the cost of maintain
ing a high school has doubled and
trebled, and they say the truth, but
small villages now have high schools
which compare favorably with those
of the big cities and the villages are
able to offer their children, and the
nearby country children, a superior
high school education, and the fat ap-
we have quoted show that
they are getting very substantial help
from the state.
In 1881 Minnesota has distributed
to its high schools as tuition for nom
resident high school pupils the rather
total of 81 ,382, 406.
The state is distributing immense
sums IN Minnesota in aid of public
school education. They ought to be,
and they will be, very much larger
But first a complete revision of the
school aid laws should be had to the
end that the inequalities which now
exist in Minnesota in the opportunity
for an education shall be wiped out.