Preliminary reports of the United States Office of Education show that expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools in 1937-38 were $2,223,045,404, divided among local, State, and Federal contributions about in the same proportion as in 1935-36. In the year 1935-36, public expenditures for education amounted to 14.4 per cent of all governmental expenditures in the United States. The ratios of educational to governmental expenditures were as follows for the respective levels of government: Federal Local Percent 2.9 29. 0 28. 6 At the time when it was decided that schools should be supported at public expense, the property tax was the principal source of public revenue. Schools now receive an increasing amount of support from other types of taxes, but about three-quarters of the annual cost of public schools still is met through property taxes, levied chiefly by local school boards and other local taxing agencies. For 1935-36, the distribution of State and local support for public schools by types of taxes was as follows: Similar data for each State separately are available in table 9, Federal Aid and the Tax Problem, Staff Study No. 4, The Advisory Committee on Education, page 41. The data are shown graphically for each State in exhibit 6. All but two States, Delaware and North Carolina, obtain more than half of their public school support from property taxes, as shown by the exhibit. No other great social service is dependent so largely upon so unsatisfactory a type of tax as the property tax. Because of this situation, the fortunes of education rise and fall with the ability and willingness of property owners to pay taxes. Most of the 127,000 local school districts raise their taxes separately. The larger the number of districts and the smaller their average size, the less likely is any reasonable relationship between amount of wealth and number of children. In several States, the richest districts with the same effort could provide $100 or more per child for every $1 provided by the poorest districts. Actual expenditures do not vary as much because of the equalization funds supplied by the State governments and because the poorest districts tax themselves much more heavily than the richest districts. Even so, in a number of States, expenditures per classroom are 12 to 15 times as high in some districts as in others. In many States, the variation in expenditures per classroom is about 6 to 1. In only a few States with large State school funds is the variation as little as 3 to 1. Inequality within States can be lessened through action by the State governments, but the States individually can do little to equalize opportunity among the States. It is therefore particularly important to compare opportunities in the various States. EXPENDITURES FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN THE VARIOUS STATES Expenditures per pupil and per child of school age are shown for the various States in the table designated as exhibit 2. The expenditures per pupil are shown in the form of a bar diagram in exhibit 7, while the map, exhibit 8, shows the regional distribution of differences in expenditures. As shown by these exhibits, the various States range between $24.55 and $134.13 in their expenditures per pupil in average daily attendance in 1935-36. In 1937-38 the ranges were from $28.19 to $147.65. Proportionately, the amount of variation is even greater in the expenditures per child of school age, which range from $15.81 to $109.87. (See column 4 of exhibit 2.) 4 The Advisory Committee on Education, Staff Study No. 4, Federal Aid and the Tax Problem, p. 26, EXHIBIT 6 Percentage of public-school revenue from taxes and appropriations in the various States derived from property taxes, commodity taxes, and all other taxes, 1935-361 1 The Advisory Committee on Education, Staff Study No. 4, Federal Aid and the Tax Problem, p. 43. EXHIBIT 7 Current expenditure per pupil in average daily attendance in the various States, 1935-36 Source: The Advisory Committee on Education, Report of the Committee, p. 22. In 3 States in 1937-38, the amount spent per pupil was less than $35, while No less than 20 in 3 it was more than $131, or nearly four times as much. States were spending below $48 per child 5 to 17 years of age, the amount which has been fixed in some studies as necessary for a minimum defensible program of EXHIBIT 8 Current expenditure per pupil in average daily attendance in the various States, 1935-36 The amounts expended by the various States are not an entirely satisfactory measure of differences in educational opportunity, but they are undoubtedly the most important single statistical measure. In general, there is a very high relationship between the amount of money spent and the quality of the service provided. Source: The Advisory Committee on Education, Report of the Committee, p. 23. public education. The figures contained in the table are State-wide averages. Most of the States in which average expenditures exceed $48 per child include many communities in which expenditures are below that level. Many important factors in educational opportunity are closely related to the differences in average expenditures among the States. Some of the more significant of these factors are shown in exhibit 9, which compares expenditures with the average number of days that schools are in session, the percentage of pupils in the high-school grades, average salaries of teachers, urban and rural, and the value of school property. EXHIBIT 9 Selected measures of public elementary and secondary education, by States, 1935-36 4 Derived from ibid., pp. 65-66. 3 Staff includes teachers, supervisors, and principals. Data from ibid., pp. 118-119. 5 Ibid., p. 81, table 17, column 5. Data cover all property used for school purposes. 6 Data not available for either 1933-34 or 1935-36. 7 States in which some or all elementary schools have only 7 grades. 8 Data for 1934. |