GROUP V.-CITIES IN THE UPPER AND MISSISSIPPI VALLEY AND EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER What should be a fair and reasonable apportionment for supervision? How much supervision should obtain? The data indicate that the extreme limits in expense for effective supervision lie between 8 and 11 per cent. of that for maintenance and operation. Many cities are lower than the minimum and perhaps as many are above the maximum. HIGH SCHOOL EXPENDITURES A relatively high ratio of expense is noticeable chiefly in the following cities, some of which are university centers, namely: Madison, Columbus, Lincoln, Oakland, Austin, Boston and Minneapolis, while Kansas City, Fitchburg, Bangor, Springfield, Ill., Newport, Poughkeepsie and Louisville maintain a correspondingly high ratio without the added incentive. In one respect Kansas City occupies a unique position in that the board of education controls the public library and sustains it upon the same basis as the public schools. No special tax is levied for the support and maintenance of the public library, but it is carried on as a department of the city school system, designed not only for the education of the children, but as a continuation of the education of the adult population. A cursory examination of Table I further reveals many variations of excessive expenditures, some of which should be mentioned with respect to the broader subjects of levying, collecting and apportioning school revenue each year. Wide differences exist in the percentages of expenditures for the same kind of service, or the cost of fuel, repairs, or "miscellaneous expenses. Some of these items depend upon prices perhaps originally agreed upon as a fair compensation for special lines of service; or, as in the case of fuel, on climatic or other conditions. In looking over the entire list of cities, the last item, "miscellaneous," is worthy of attention. Of the large cities in the first and second groups, St. Louis stands charged with 8.2 per cent., while Philadelphia has 8.4 per cent. and Boston 1.55 per cent. In the third group, San Francisco charged herself with 19.6 per cent. which appears entirely too large and doubtless includes some expenditures that should have been excluded; or it was an exceptionally heavy expenditure for that year. Providence, charged 9.9 per cent. for the same item, while Newark expended $8.30 of every $100 for the same purpose. In cities having from 20,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, Tacoma is credited with 9.7 per cent. for "miscellaneous;" Superior, Wis., 9.6 per cent.; Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 14.2 per cent.; Austin, Texas, 21.3 per cent.; Lima, Ohio, 17.5 per cent.; Colorado Springs, Colo., with 21.4 per cent. Among the cities of the lowest group, the highest is Burlington, Vt., with 12.7 per cent. The most reasonable explanation of these variations lies in the fact that many school boards defer some incidental expenditures until the very last moment, and then when they must be attended to, the outlay appears out of all proportion. It would be a matter of public interest to know specifically whether reductions in other departments correspond to the increased cost in this department, and it is possible that the miscellaneous expense one year is very different from what it was the year previous, or it will be the year following, in the same town or city. We have not yet reached a point where we can generalize safely relative to the comparative items of high-school teachers' salaries, elementary teachers' salaries, and the cost of supervision. If a city has twelve high schools, as has Boston, it will cost more proportionately to maintain those high schools than it will in St. Louis, where they have but four. There is a substantial. agreement, however, as to the ratio which the amount of money paid for instruction in its various forms bears to the total amount expended for schools. From 70 to 74 per cent. seems to be the average of normally situated cities. The difference in cost of fuel alone would explain considerable of the difference in the ratio between Buffalo, N. Y., of 78.5 per cent. and Los Angeles, Calif., of 80.1 per cent. for instruction. It will be observed also, that there is a tendency to a lower ratio of expense for the side of instruction where there are demands for excellent school buildings, and where the schools are equipped with appliances that teachers think necessary. In Fort Wayne, Ind., the ratio of expense for repairs is very low, 1.4 per cent.; the ratio for fuel is also very low, .4 per cent. These two items fall enough below the ratio of a city like Waterbury, Conn., to explain the higher standard which Fort Wayne seems to bear in the relative amount that that city devotes to the side of instruction. Again, Fort Wayne, having a population approximately the same as Waterbury, expends $111,720 for school expenses as against $179,955, expended in Waterbury. The entire municipal expenditure of Waterbury, however, is $60,000, greater than that of Fort Wayne. We should expect, too, to find in a city like Boston, where the total operating expense of the city was $21,888,291, and a city like St. Louis, that is larger than Boston, with a total operating expense of only $8,715,000, a much larger expenditure for school purposes in Boston than in St. Louis. Properly interpreted this means that the standard of living is higher in Boston than it is in St. Louis, and the city of Boston pays more for the comfort and wellbeing of its inhabitants than the city of St. Louis pays for its inhabitants. An investigation of the comparative cost of schools in the period prior to 1860 shows that in Boston, in Cambridge, in Worcester, in Springfield, in Manchester, N. H., and in Holyoke, Mass., a very much larger proportion of the entire city expenditures in this period went for support of schools than in the period since 1860. In Springfield, Mass., in 1850, for instance, 50 per cent. of the entire municipal expenditures were devoted to schools, as against 30 per cent. in 1900. In the city of Boston, in 1800, 25 per cent. of the entire expenditures went for schools, and about the same proportion in 1826, as against 14 per cent. in 1900. An examination of the records in this period prior to 1860 also shows that a much larger percentage of the money devoted to the support of schools went to teachers' salaries than in the period after 1860. It is easy to understand that during this early era the cost of caring for schoolhouses, the cost of operating heating plants, the cost of furnishing books and supplies, and the cost of administration, was very much smaller. As a matter of course, then, the development of these demands in the later period, left a smaller increment proportionately to be devoted to the side of instruction. Notwithstanding the advance in teachers' salaries, a much smaller proportion of the total school expenditure is expended now for instruction than in the early period. This much seems certain that, notwithstanding prevalent opinion to the contrary, the cost of schools during the last forty years has not kept pace with the cost of admin istering other departments of the municipality. In short, the schools, instead of being inordinately expensive, have been compelled to give up directly and indirectly part of the income belonging to them in order that other departments of the city government may be properly taken care of. This is not necessarily a criticism upon the other departments of the city government. The cost of living measured by the same standards as obtained prior to 1860 has not only not increased but has greatly decreased. Our standard of living is so very much higher than it was that the cost of that higher standard has increased very greatly. If, however, one is willing to live in a house that is not equipped with modern conveniences, rents for such a house are no higher, if as high, than prior to 1860. It has been estimated by competent authorities that at the beginning of the Christian Era, $100 would pay all the expenses incident to the care of a boy from birth until he was twentyone. At the present time, it is doubtful whether $2,500 is a large enough sum to expend for such purpose in the standard of living obtained in the lower middle class. TEXTBOOKS AND SUPPLIES The following table indicates the experience of the city of Omaha so far as the cost of textbooks is concerned, which seemingly demonstrates a rising and falling of expense in accordance with an established ratio: 1890-91 1891-92 1892-93 1893-94 1894-95 1895-96 1896-97 Textbooks, etc. Stationery. Enrollment. Textbooks, etc. Stationery. Supplies Enrollment.. $7.756.41 $12,122.21 $11,159.54 $6.429.59 $11.901.89 $8.135.44 $7.481.81 3.120. 18 2.109.73 18,271 3.595.21 3.740.09 18.970 4,217.41 5.040.70 3.915.62 3 957-43 4834.28 6.517.40 19.500 Part of the inequality in expense as disclosed by different cities may be explained by this excessive expense ratio for 1900 being one of the higher terms of the ratio rather than the lower, as it may be in other cities. The item of 2.2 per cent. for the city of Boston represents the lowest results that can probably be obtained from great care in the purchase and preservation of books, a care and oversight that at times borders on parsimony. Where the rate for free textbooks rises above 3.5 per cent. of the appropriation, it is believed that an inspection of the items of expense will show that the cost of furnishing the high-school books in said city is excessive. This cost is certainly excessive where high-school attendance of 5 per cent. of the entire population is credited with an expenditure for textbooks amounting to 333 per cent. of the entire appropriation for textbooks. The appropriation for supplies indicates also great variation. It is believed that the appropriation for supplies ought not to exceed 60 per cent. of the appropriation for textbooks. In some cities, however, the cost of furnishing blank paper alone to the pupils exceeds in amount the cost of furnishing textbooks. The expense in the state of New Hampshire in the report for 1902, page 277, is interesting in this connection. The amount expended for textbooks is $46,600; for supplies, $24,749, and the total expenditure for running expenses is $1,080,000. In 1902, the expenses for textbooks were $49,684, for supplies $27,360, and the total expenditure for the running expenses was $1,070,000. The expenditures for the state of Vermont, as disclosed by the itemized statement from each town, as published in the annual report for each year, bear out the same ratio. These two states are the only ones which, to our knowledge, separate the items of textbooks and supplies both in detail and in summary form. C. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SCHOOL AFFAIRS Your committee believe that the most economical way of administering school affairs so as not to impair their efficiency, would be better and more plainly stated, "the receipt of the value of a dollar for each dollar expended." School administration does not differ from the administration of any other enterprise which involves expenditure. The directors of a great railway company refrain from purchasing equipment that adds nothing to the substantial returns. A great manufacturing enterprise makes no investment for material, except the material be necessary for the prosperous conduct of the institution; neither do great industrial or transportation companies expend great sums of money in independent or in judicious experimentation. They readily permit one institution of the kind to make trials of inventions and purchase plants for new projects, and wait to learn the result from the party experimenting before increasing their own respective plants and investments. In the school world we find continual introductions of new and novel devices, methods and modifications in courses of study made too frequently, and with the knowledge at the start that only an experiment is contemplated. We find at one time, new and expensive equipment along new lines purchased by school boards for the purpose of testing a new and novel scheme, urged to the outlay by expert agents, skillful salesmen, and bright business men, when such action by one body would be sufficient to determine the probable value of the investment, after which other boards. could follow. This seems to be the practice in the financial, industrial, and commercial world, but unfortunately, with the schoolmaster professing personal claim to originality, insistence upon individual trial is followed by outlay for experiment. An even greater folly than unnecessary expenditure accompanies such tests-the trifling with the educational training of hundreds of children whose rights demand that few, not many, be used to demonstrate the value of theories which may be practicable or impracticable. |