Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1874 — EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS. [ARTICLE]

EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS.

Annual Report ot the Commissioner ot Education. • , The United States Commissioner of Education has published his annual report for 1873. Notwithstanding the disasters which have fallen upon the industries of the country, he states that on the whole the past year was one of substantial " progress in educational matters. In Alabama the Board of Education has labored under great embarrassment, from the difficulty of securing from an impoverished people the needful funds for tlie support of free schools. Arkansas has labored under similar embarrassment with respect to funds. Louisiana has struggled through the year under kindred financial troubles with the two neighboring States just "named. The new State Superintendent of Instruction in Florida reports an increase of fifty-six schools in 1873,- making, with 113 added in 1873, an addition of 169 to the 331 previously existent. Georgia, after a cessation of public-school teaching for a year (except in certain towns), has again set her.schools in operation, and an earnest Superintendent is doing obviously his best to make the new effort a success. "South Carolina shows an increase of 98 free schools and 147 aew school-houses oxer 1872, xvitli an additional school-attendance of 7,421, and an additional expenditure of $113,981.37 for public schools. North Carolina has increased by about 74 per cent, her receipts for free schools and by about 190 per cent, the attendance of them. Kentucky has friends of education who have pressed forxvard, amending her School law, advancing the qualifications of her teachers, improving and taking steps toward a general education of her colored population. In Virginia, though there has been a slight falling oil’ in receipts and expenditures for school purposes, as well as in enrollment and average attendance, there are 501 new schools, While a great number of school-houses were built during the year. The returns from Tennessee are imperfeet, | but enough appears to indicate that the organization of the State system lias gone steadily forward under the direction of the Superintendent. * Maryland has lengthened her school year sixteen davs; expended for teachers’ salaries $14,000 more than in 1872;. for school-houses $7,000 more, and” for general school purposes $97,083 more; at the same time adding 12,198 to her school enrollment and making fair j beginnings in an effort to give her colored j children equal advantages for education xvitli the whites. Delaware still remains without any State supervision of schools, but in her two lower counties some improvement is observable. j Pennsylvania shows an increase of twenty- j two school districts, of 306 schools, of 309 , graded schools, of 721 teachers, and of six | days in the average duration of her school ; term, with an aggregate of school property estimated at $21,750,209, and a total expenditure for school purposes of $8,812,969.25. New Jersey reports eighty-three nexv school- ; houses/with great improvement iu the con- ; dition of the older ones; an increase of three ! days iu the average school term; a liberal ad- ; viihce in teachers' salaries; $74,244.74 beyond i 1872 for building and repairing schools; ! $283,998.18 beyond for general school purposes, and $588.(H0 beyond the estimated value of, school property’ New York reports a receipt ot $11,556,037.80 for public-school purposes, aud an expenditure of $10,416,588 for the same, with a total expenditure of $116,652,930.57 in twelve vears past. Of the grand anuual expenditure nearly $7,000,000 hax-e gone for the salaries of nearly s2,<l)o,ooofor building and improving school-houses: $174,339.23 foi supporting eight normal schools, and $7,690.94 for supply of school instruction to the few litdiaus in the State. Connecticut publishes a decade-table showing that, though the number of children enumerated has - increased only 21,257 in teu years, the increase of interest in public schools has been such as to raise the amount secured for them from all sources to $1,442,669.01 in 1873 against $390,454-220 in 1864. Rhode Island, shows that id 4863 her towns raised nearly SIOO,OOO for the support of j schools, and’ that in 1873 the same towns’;

raised over $300,000 for the same purpose. The increase of schools in the same time was 807: of teachers, 9«. The returns from Massachusetts for the school year 1871-’72 show $5,476,927.66 raised by taxation for public schools alone. The estimated value of school-houses in the Btate was Over $20,000,000 at the close of 1873, against $13,770,0(59 at the beginning of 1870; 176 high schools and fifty-eight incorporated academies are returned. Maine shows a smaller number enrolled in | schools, but a decidedly better average attendance. New Hampshire presents 222 new or newlyI repaired school-houses, 44 new schools. 67 additional graded schools, but a diminished average attendance. Vermont, reporting biennially, makes no statement as to public schools for 1873. Ohio having changed the legal school age from 5-21 to 6-21 exhibits, probably from this cause, an apparent falling off in school population of 81,566. She raised in 1873, for school purposes, $7,705,603, against $7,420,338 in 1872. Michigan raised for school purposes, in 1873, $3,939,528, against $3,563,479 in 1872.The condition of the public schools is reported to ’ have much improved under county supervision. . Indiana, without giving full statistics for 1873, claims a net increase of school revenue amountingto $165,581 over 1872, with 465 new school-houses, built at a cost of $872,900. The permanent school fund has been augmented and more than the usual amount raised by taxation. Illinois shows a school population larger by 27,135 than in 1872, a smaller enrollment in -schools, turban average- attendance about the same. Her school revenue, $9,269,441, has' been $1,759,319 beyond that of the preceding year. Wisconsin, for a comparatively new State, without the aid of large and wealthy cities, has raised for school purposes $2,028,027, and expended for repairs of school-houses $307,934. Minnesota, out of 196,075 children scattered over her great surface, shows the fair proportion of 124,583 enrolled in her free schools, with about 3,358 more iu pay schools. During the past year 228 new school-houses have been erected, at a cost of $203,311. lowa reports $4,519,688 raised to instruct a school population numbering 491,644, of whom 347,572 are enrolled in public schools, and 12,135 in private ones. The sum of $1,169,954 has been expended in this State in the erection of new school-houses aud supply of libraries and apparatus. In Missouri the enrollment in public schools is 389,956 out of 673,493 children of school age, and the amount raised for the support of schools is $1,790,314. -ttA" —. Kansas has 121,690 in her schools, out of a school population reaching only 184,957, and has devoted to the education of this number $1,863,098, with $515,071 for school buildings and repairs, the increase of school-houses for 1873 being 696, and that of enrollment 15,027. Nebraska, with a school population of 63,108, has on her school rolls 37,372, and has raised for school purposes $798,660. Nevada returns 5,675 children.of school age, and in her seventy-six schools 3,478. Educational activity in Oregon has been very greatly stimulated during this the first year of the service of the State Superintendent. The establishment of graded-sehool systems in the towns has not advanced as rapidly as could be desired. California justifies the general sense of her importance by reporting a school population of 141,010 and a school enrollment of 107,503, her school revenue reaching $2,551,799, or "about $23.70 for each enrolled child. Clear evidence of popular favor toward her public schools comes iu the fact that- within eight years 15,294 children have been transferred from private schools to them. For the first time reports, more or less complete, have b,een received from all the Territories. The exhibition is encouraging, evincing a desire for educational advantages and efforts to secure" "them even where present circumstances are unfavorable. Excluding Alaska, the Territories give an aggregate of 69,638 children in the schools, and of $838,820 for the instruction of them. The District ofColumbia stands first among the Territories as respects the number enrolled as' scholars, 16,770. Utah comes next, reporting 15,839; while in the amount raised for educational purposes Colorado heads the list, her school revenue, for a school enrollment of 7,456, being $257,557, against $220,514 in the District of Columbia. The most striking progress is presented in New Mexico. This Territory is able to report 5,304 scholars iu the schools. Hopeful progress is manifest in the growth of special schools for the training of teachers for our public schools. Statistics are given of 113 normal schools and normal departments, having 877 instructors and 16,620 students. Eleven of these were established ,or organized in 1873, the most notable being the Massachusetts State Normal Art School. The Commissioner estimates the population between the ages of six and sixteen in the thirty-seven States and eleven Territories at about 10,228,000. Massachusetts heads the list with an expenditure per capita of $21.74; Nevada, $17.35; California, $14.92; Nebraska, $11.92; Connecticut, $11.00; Rhode Island, $11.60; Illinois, $lO.lB. North Garoliua shows the smallest expenditure, the amount per capita of school enumerations being fifty- - five cents; Alabama, $1.21; Florida, $1.49; South Carolina, $1.60. Colorado heads the list of Territories with an expenditure of $17.50 per capita of enumeration, Montana coming next with an expenditure per capita of $9.43. In the District of Columbia the expenditure per .capita was $9.42; in New Mexico, $1.77. Allowing forty pupil’s- to each teacher, r the number required to teach the youths betweensix and sixteen years of age is estimated at 260,000. It is estimated that the public school teachers in Massachusetts teach oil an average three years. Perhaps this period of service would be a high average for the whole cotin- j try. Hence, coufining the estimate to the school population between six and sixteen j years of age, the number of new teachers j which shoultklae prepared each year to take i up the work would be 86,666. , The report presents a summary of the sta- | tistics of 1,039 schools for secondary instruc- ! tion. commonly denominated academies, : seminaries, institutes, etc., including college ; preparatory schools. The number of instruct- i ors in these schools was 5,748; number of stu- j dents, 131,057; total number of volumes in library, 559,1881 - The number of Institutions for the superior instruction of women' reporting in 1873, not including the five colleges for womgn in the , State of New York, was 205, with 2,120 instructors and 24,613 students; 107 of the number are designed as colleges; 6,821 of the students were in the preparatory departments, 17,267 were reported to be in regular or advanced courses of study, and 1,025 in special and post-graduate courses. The number of volmpes reported in the libraries was 213.675. The number-of schools of science (including special scientific of universities) embraced in the JAunmissioner’s tables is 68. j reporting 650 professors and instructors, 6,396 I students in regular coßrses, 533' in special I courses, 98 in post-graduate courses, 1,426 in ; preparatory courses; 193,000 volumes in Jibra- |" ries, about 14,000 volumes having been added i to them during the year. The number of schools of theology in the country in 1873 was lit), havings73 professors and 3,SIS students; volumes in libraries, 562,484; increase in libraries during tlie year, 36,303 t volumes. The aggregate corporate prop- | erty of the schools, as far as reported, was j $7,768,498; endowments, $5,455,097. Of the i 110 theological schools and theological de- j ; partments of colleges in the United States, 20 are Presbyterian, 16 Roman Catholic, 16 Baptist, 18 Lutheran and Reformed, 10 Protestant Episcopal, 10 Methodist, 8 Congregational, 2 unsectarian, and 1 each Unitarian, Moravian, ; New Jerusalem and Union Evangelical. In advocating drawing the publicin : schools the Commissioner says: “ Whoever succeeds in having all the public,sehool children of the country properly trained in elementary drawing will have done more to advance the manufactures of the country and more to make possible the art culture of the people than could be accomplished by the establishment of a hundred art museums without this training. Just as libraries are worthless to those who cannot

read so are art galleries to those who cannot comprehend them. Just as all literature is Opeu to him who has learned to read so is pH art to him who has learned to draw, whose eye has been trained to see and his fingers made facile to execute. We have begun at the wrong end. We asked for art galleries when we needed drawing-schools; but the evil is not irremediable. - Let drawing be generally taught and our art galleries and museums, poor as they are, will at once grow more and more - valuable, for they will then begin to be of use.” There are in the United States forty institutions for the instruction qf deaf mutes. The number of instructors employed in them is 289. The number of inmates’ under instruction in 1873 was 4,534. The number of asylums for the blind is 28, having.s4s teachers. The number of inmates under instruction during the year was 1,916. There are probably more than 400 institutions for orphans and homeless youths in this country, sheltering not less than 45,000 poor and unfortunate children. Information concefning 178 of these asylums is given in the report. They were under the supervision and care of 1,484 persons and contained over 22,000 inmates, most of whom were probably under instruction. —" r " ■u\.The number of institutions distinctively known as Reform Schools which furnished information to the bureau was 34. The number of commitments during the year was 6,858. The number who received instruction in reading in the year was 1,675; number taught to write, 1,908. Number of volumes reported in the libraries of tnese schools was 27,747. The number of instructors in all classes of educational institutions in 1870, according to the census, was 221;042; number of pupils, 7,209,938. According to the Commissioner’s report there were in 1873, iu all classes of institutions about which information was Obtained, 246,932 teachers and 8,723,945 pupils.