Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1902 — FIGURES ON INDIANA SCHOOLS. [ARTICLE]

FIGURES ON INDIANA SCHOOLS.

Boom for Enforcement of Compulsory Attendance Law. School show that in 1900 Indiana contained 750,004 children of school age—390,787 boys and 305,217 girls. Ont of this number the total number of pupils enrolled during the year wns 504,607, 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 Stale t»ade a better showing in respect of enrollment than Massachusetts did, ns 70 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 wns 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 Massachujetts wag 189 days. Minnesota has the higher average of any central Western State, 169 days, and Ohio the next, 165 dnya. There is no apparent reason why the average school term in this State ihould not be lengthened two weeks, thus placing it In this respect ahead of any Jtber Western State. During the iyear 1900 the Indiana schools gave employment to 15,617 teachers, of whom 7,203 were males and 8.409 were females- The percentage of male tenchorg 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. Thera is not another Northern State that ihows as high a percentage of male teachers as Indiana. Massachusetts pays her teachers and superintendents better than Indiana does, the average per month in the former State being $136.54 to male teachers and $52.50 to females, against HH.BO to males and $43.55 to females.