State or Territory.

twenty-one 24 the school census age. The age of each individual enumerated was to be noted, however, so that the number of children between any two limits of age could be ascertained.1

Predominance of child population.-An examination of the last column of Table 1 reveals the circumstance that the proportion of children to be educated in a community varies greatly in different parts of the country. In the North Atlantic Division, for instance, there are only 17 children of the age given to every 100 persons, while in the South Atlantic Division there are 21, and in the South Central Division 22. A computation of the number of children 6 to 14 years of age to every 100 adults would show a still greater disparity. This excess of children whose education is to be provided for forms one of the peculiar disadvantages under which the South labors, and must be taken into account in forming an idea of the educational situation in that section.

Density of population.-The density of population is another important factor affecting education. In sparsely settled agricultural States, where the schools are of necessity small and far between, the conditions are, and must remain, unfavorable to the development of a highly organized system, carried on at great expense for teachers and educational appliances, and holding sessions of nine or ten months in the year, as is the case with densely peopled States having a large urban population. It is on this account that Column 5 of Table 1, giving the population per square mile of each of the States and Territories, has been introduced.

It is a notable circumstance that while the density of population in the North Central States is less than one-third of that in the North Atlantic States (it being twenty-seven and ninety-seven in the two sections respectively), the people of the former group have nearly equalled, and in some cases surpassed, those of the latter in the development of their public schools. The fact that this is so forms a high encomium upon the enterprise and intelligence of the people of the North Central States.

The desirability of having separate exhibits of urban and rural school systems, in addition to the complete State exhibit, is referred to elsewhere in this Report.

TABLE 1.-SCHOOL YEAR, TOTAL POPULATION, AND POPULATION 6 TO 14.

Addresses and Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1885, p. 478, note,
a The population is given for the beginning of the school year reported.

Average numberto a square mile.

Number.

Average number in each 100 of total

population.

a The population is given for the beginning of the school year reported. & For ten months ending June 30, 1887.

For later information, received too late for insertion in the tables, see p. 153. d Excluding Alaska.

SCHOOL AGES AND SCHOOL CENSUS.

[Table 2, Page 57.]

The primary object of a school census, in nearly every case where one is taken, is to secure a basis for the apportionment of the State school revenue. As a general rule, the persons of the age for free attendance at the public schools are the ones enumerated; in a few instances, however, as in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Oregon, and California, the scope of the school census is determined, not by the age of those entitled to free school privileges, but by special age limits which govern the distribution of the school revenues. Hence, as regards the school population of the different States as given by the school censuses, there is a want of homogeneity, not only in respect to the years included, but as regards the essential natures of these quantities, some of them being merely ages for the distribution of funds, others ages for free attendance.

This circumstance has been mentioned in order to illustrate further the non-compar abity of the "State school populations;" this point can not be too strongly emphasized; It may be said, without exaggeration, that the treating of these quantities as homogeneous has been the most fruitful source of the abnormal and contradictory statements

that have been made of late years, in the public press and in legislative debates, regarding educational conditions.

Age for free attendance.—The age for free school privileges, as will be seen by the table, is very different for the different States. In an attempt at classification of these ages, it can not be found that they follow any very well defined law under the different aspects under which they may be viewed. In most cases they were presumably determined by local or temporary causes, and were not based upon any general consideration, else there would not be seen the diversity that actually exists in the case of contiguous and similarly circumstanced States.

The number of different school ages for free attendance is fifteen; of these, the age six to twenty-one has been selected by fourteen States; five to twenty-one comes next, adopted by ten States; and six to eighteen by seven States. Of the remaining ages, no one has been adopted by more than two States.

As regards duration, the Southern Central States have the shortest average period, extending over 13 years; then follow (excluding in the computation those States whose age limits are undefined) the South Atlantic States, 14 years; the Western States, 14 Fr years; the North Atlantic States, 14 years; and lastly the North Central States, 15 years.

It will be seen that the differences in the duration of the free school age in the different sections of the country are so small as to be practically without significance.

In 1 State (Massachusetts) there is no inferior limit of the free-school age. In 4 States it begins at 4 years of age, in 15 at 5 years, in 23 at 6 years, in 3 at 7 years, and in 1 (Texas) at 8 years. As regards the superior limit of free attendance, in 2 States (Connecticut and Texas) it stops at 16 years, in 8 at 18 years (including the District of Columbia, where the free-school age is 6 to 17 inclusive), in 6 States at 20 years, in 28 at 21 years, and in 3 States (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Michigan) the free-school age extends indefinitely upwards.

In the preceding paragraphs the word "States" is to be considered as including also the Territories.

Compulsory school age.-Seventeen States, seven Territories (including Alaska), and the District of Columbia have a compulsory attendance law; twenty-one States and two Territories have none. The compulsory school age of New Mexico has not been reported to this Office, though it is known that a law establishing one was recently enacted.1

The compulsory school age, unlike the free school age, has one well-defined characteristic, which the geographical classification adopted in the tables clearly exhibits. It is entirely wanting (except in the District of Columbia, which stands in a peculiar relation to the rest of the country) in the two southern divisions. Every North Atlantic State has compulsory attendance, except Pennsylvania, and the same is true of every North Central State, except Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri.

In many instances, however, the compulsory attendance law, if not actually a dead letter, is practically so, as will be exhibited in another portion of this Report.

The duration of the period of compulsory attendance ranges from 4 years (in Dakota) to 9 years (in Wyoming). Six years of age is the lowest inferior limit and 10 the highest (the latter also in Dakota). The superior limit ranges from 14 to 16 years of age, in no case going beyond the latter.

Increase of school-census population.-Although the school-census populations may not be compared with each other, nor aggregated, on account of their heterogeneity, the percentage of increase of these populations may, if we assume that the population between any two limits of age in any State increases in the same ratio as that between any other two limits (i. e., that the proportion of the population of any given age remains constant in each State), an assumption that may be made as regards the increase of a few years within very narrow limits of error. It is on this assumption that the percentage of increase or decrease of school-census population has been aggregated by geographical divisions in Column 8 of Table 2.

The largest percentage of increase is found, as might be expected, in the Western Division, which contains the newer States and Territories that are being opened up for settlement, and where a small absolute increase sometimes causes a large relative one. Taking the five States and Territories of that division that furnish the necessary data, the average increase per cent. of the school-census population is found to be 5.68, which would cause it to double in about twelve and a half years.

The next largest rate of growth of school-census population is found in the South; the percentage of increase in the South Atlantic Division (based on two States only) is 3.21,

From information received at this Office since the tables were compiled, it appears that the law does not define the age at which children may be compelled to attend school in New Mexico, thereby rendering it applicable to the whole school population "-i, e., those from 5 to 20 years.

**

while in the South Central (based on five States) it is 4.21; these rates of increase would cause a doubling in the two divisions in twenty-two and in seventeen years respectively. Of the individual States of these two last named sections, Alabam shows an increase of 7.2 per cent., equivalent to a doubling of her school population (and also of her total population, upon the assumption referred to above) in about ten years. This growth, if correctly reported, is a truly phenomenal one, and emphasizes the plea for more funds for the schools of Alabama, made by Superintendent Palmer of that State in his last report. The average increase of the school-census population for all the States and Territories affording data to be used in the computation (27 in number) is 2.61 per cent., which would cause it to double in twenty-seven years. States and Territories from all parts of the country and under all conditions of growth are represented in this average, and it may be considered as expressing with a tolerable degree of correctness the actual present rate of growth of the United States in population.

TABLE 2.-SCHOOL AGE AND SCHOOL CENSUS.

TABLE 2.-SCHOOL AGE AND SCHOOL CENSUS--Continued.

The total public school enrolment of the United States, as made up from the latest data received and supplemented by estimates in two cases (Arkansas and Montana), is 11,805,660.

Growth of enrolment.-The yearly increase for the United States can not be accurately determined, as ten States and Territories do not furnish the necessary data. Assuming, however, that the States and Territories so lacking have made the same progress as the others in the same divisions, the yearly increase would be 305,772, or at the rate of 2.66 per cent. per annum. The increase over the amount reported for 1885-86 is greater than this, a circumstance which results from the fact that the returns of some of the States are two or more years later than those given in the preceding Report.

In only five States (New Hampshire, Vermont, South Carolina, Ohio, and Nevada) and one Territory (Arizona) has the enrolment decreased. The largest relative decrease, 5.37 per cent., is found in New Hampshire. Dakota furnishes the largest per cent. of increase, 11.70, followed by Indiana with 9.20. This large development of the school registration of Indiana is a notable circumstance, when compared with the nearly stationary condition of that of the contiguous States, Ohio and Illinois.

The enrolment of Mississippi is considerably less than that reported for last year, as is also the average daily attendance. State Superintendent Preston writes to the Office that there has probably been no actual decrease, but that the attendance has heretofore been fraudulently exaggerated in the reports of certain teachers who were paid according to the number of pupils they taught. The law has been changed so that this method of determining teachers' wages is no longer practised.

Considering the different geographical divisions, all show a satisfactory growth in enrolment, unless it may be the North Atlantic Division, where the rate of increase (.71 per

30