median. This amount is represented by the little part down here [indicating]. CHART 62-DISTRIBUTION OF CLASSROOM UNITS ACCORDING TO LEVELS OF EXPENDITURE NEW YORK CURRENT EXPENDITURE PER CLASSROOM UNIT $500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 5,500 6,000 100% PERCENTAGE OF CLASSROOM UNITS $500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 5,500 6,000 In order to lift all New York districts clear up to the $4,100 median of New York City it would only cost $52,000,000, as compared with the $290,000,000 total bill. New York State is making just about average effort to support schools. By "effort" I mean tax rate for education, or more exactly, the ratio between income received by all the people and expenditures for education. If you give that ratio for the United States as a whole the value of 100, then New York's effort is 102, or 2 percent above average effort. But the ability to do that same thing in Mississippi, to lift all districts up to the $1,600 median, is quite a different fiscal problem. It 0 is an insuperable fiscal problem for Mississippi. Mississippi at the present time is spending a little over $11,000,000 for its public elementary and secondary schools, which is represented by the heavy outline of the profile [indicating] chart 63. It would cost all of this crossed and lined area in here [indicating] to lift all classroom units in Mississippi up to the $1,600 level; $23,000,000 as compared with the present cost of $11,000,000, or a trebling, or 200-percent increase over the present amount. When we have in mind, however, that Mississippi, in terms of effort is already making 33 percent more effort than the country as a whole, you see how impossible it would be. It would mean that the effort that Mississippi would have to make would be astronomical compared with the effort that any State has made. The highest effort now being made by any State to support education is 166, or 66 percent above average. Mississippi is well up, being 133, or 33 percent above average. In order to fill out this part of the chart CHART 63-DISTRIBUTION OF CLASSROOM UNITS ACCORDING TO LEVELS OF EXPENDITURE MISSISSIPPI CURRENT EXPENDITURE PER CLASSROOM UNIT 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 5,500 6,000 $500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 5,500 6,000 for Mississippi, merely to bring the classrooms up to the national median of $1,600, would require such a large sum that there is no expectation, under the present economic and fiscal situation, that Mississippi will be able to do it. I think Dr. Ivy has said Mississippi has a surplus now of $15,000,000; $15,000,000 would be less than enough to do it for 1 year, because it would cost $23,000,000 to do it for 1 year. If Mississippi took all of that surplus, if it let the roads, debt, and everything else go, and applied it all to education, the State could not do it for 1 year, and next year it would be back with no surplus at all; back to this present [indicating] level of support. Compare the situation in California; chart 64. All California would need to do would be to vote an additional $84,000, or $85,000 in rounds numbers, to fill out this little bit that is below $1,600. CHART 64--DISTRIBUTION OF CLASSROOM UNITS ACCORDING TO LEVELS OF EXPENDITURE CALIFORNIA CURRENT EXPENDITURE PER CLASSROOM UNIT $500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 5,500 6,000 PERCENTAGE OF CLASSROOM UNITS 100% $500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000 4,500 5,000 5,500 6,000 73384-45-pt. 1- -6 The CHAIRMAN. Doctor, could you give me the same comparison for the State of Montana? Dr. NORTON. We can look it up and give it to you. I do not happen to have the chart with me. Alabama, making 7 percent above average effort for the country as a whole, would have to have $23,000,000 more, as compared with the $18,000,000 it is already spending, or would have to double its expenditure and make a far greater effort than any State is now making. Senator ELLENDER. I wonder if it would be possible to get the same information for each State? (The information requested by Senator Ellender follows:) Additional amount necessary, on the basis of 1939–40 current expenditures, to raise all classroom units below any $100 level of support up to that level (transportation and tuition costs not included) |