Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1902 — FIGURES ON INDIANA SCHOOLS. [ARTICLE]

FIGURES ON INDIANA SCHOOLS.

Room for Enforcement of Compulsory Attendance Law. School statistics show that in 1900 Indiana contained 756,004 children of school age—390.787 boys and 365.217 girls. Ont of this number the' total number of pupils enrolled during the year was 564,807, leaving 191,197 children of school age not in school. Of these some were too young to have started in school, some had quit after a partial course, and some were truants. There is evidently room for the enforcement of the compulsory law. However, this State made a better showing in respect of enrollment than Massachusetts did, as 76 per cent of Indiana’s children of school age were enrolled, against 74 per cent in Massachusetts. The average length of school terms in this State during the year was 152 days. This was more than the average in the central Western States, but below the average in the New England States. The average school term in Massachusetts was IS9 days. Minnesota has the higher average of any central Western State, 169 days, and Ohio the next, 165 days. There is no apparent reason why the average school term in this State should not be lengthened two weeks, thus placing it in this respect ahead of any other Western State. During the year 1900 the Indiana schools gave employment to 15,617 teachers, of whom 7,208 were males and 8.409 were females. The percentage of male teachers in all the Western States greatly exceeds that in the New England States, In Indiana, 46 per cent of all the teachers were males and in Massachustts only 9 per cent. There is not another Northern State that shows as high a percentage of male teachers as Indiana. Massachusetts pays her teachers and superintendents better than Indiana does, the average iter month in the former State being $136.54 to male teachers and $52.50 to females, against $48.80 to males and $43.55 to female*.