Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 127, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1904 — MORE MONEY SPENT IN SCHOOLS [ARTICLE]

MORE MONEY SPENT IN SCHOOLS

Public Systems of Country Increase Expenditures by $16,000,000. The report of the commissioner of education for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, made public by the Secretary of the Interior, shows that 10,009,361 pupils, or 20 per cent of the entire population of the country, attended the pubiio schools during that year. As compared with the previous six years this percentage shows a slight decrease in the number of pupils as compared with total population. The total cost of the public school system is given ns 1251,457,025. This is an increase of $16,000,000 over the previous j ear. It amounts to $3.15 per capita of total population and $22.75 per capita per pupil. Since 1870 the proportion of male teachers has decreased from 39 per cent of the entire number to 26 per cent of the entire number the past year. The enrollment in the private schools for the year is given as 1,093,876. By the addition of pupils In elementary schools, ncademies, institutions for higher education, evening schools, business schools, private kindergartens, Indian schools, State schools and schools for defective the grand total of 18,187,918 pupils is reported. The report estimates that the average schooling given to each Inhabitant in 1870 was 672 days and in 1903 1,034 days. The report shows that last year 1,578,632 colored children were enrolled in the common schools for that race in the former sixteen slave States and the District of Columbia. The enrollment in 1877, the first year statistics were taken of the colored schools, was 571,506. Since 1870 it is estimated that $130,000,000 has Jjeen expended in the education of the colored children in the former slave States and nearly $600,000,000 for the same purpose for the white children of the same section. Ninety-six reform schools are recorded, with 31,468 inmates, 21,603 of whom are learning useful trades.