XXXIV. EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

ANNA TOLMAN SMITH

FUNCTIONS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Appropriations. The functions of eral grants of land and money by the Federal Government in respect to Congress for educational purposes, education are limited to the control and the results of the endowments of the Military and Naval Academies, have inspired efforts for a renewal and to the direction of the school sys- of government bounty. That the tems of newly acquired possessions present Administration "stands for and of schools for Indians and for industrial education and for Federal the natives of Alaska. The appro- aid to it" was declared in a public priations by Congress directly for address by Secretary Redfield of the educational purposes for the fiscal Department of Commerce, but the year ending June 30, 1913, amounted hopes of favorable action by Conin round numbers to $14,000,000. Of gress on some one of the pending this sum, about $5,000,000 was ap- bills giving effect to this purpose have plied to the education of Indians, been disappointed. including the support of the Indian Office at Washington, and $4,371,700 for agricultural education; of the latter amount, $2,500,000 was the continuing appropriation for the colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and $1,871,700 the appropriation for experiment stations. For the maintenance of the public schools of the District of Columbia, Congress contributed $2,447,575. or one-half the total expenditure for the schools, the other half falling upon the citizens of the district.

Activities Indirectly Educational.The Federal Government also takes an active part in welfare activities which are indirectly educational. The first bulletin issued by the Children's Bureau discussed the care of the newborn infant. It was widely circulated, translated into several tongues, and excited a remarkable interest among mothers in the poorer classes. The Department of Agriculture is revolutionizing farm industries by its demonstration work, and through the coöperation of women's clubs carries instruction as to food tests and preservation to thousands of women in country homes. The Bureau of Plant Industry has 20 canning outfits at its command which are taken by demonstrators to country fairs, church sociables, women's clubs, etc., for the purpose of teaching women the art of scientific canning. Not less than 75,000 girls belong to canning clubs. The Public Health Service is one of the chief "health teaching" agencies in the world. The Bureau of Education is carrying on an aggressive campaign against make-shift rural schools and adult ignorance and has rallied to this endeavor innumerable social workers throughout the land.

The appropriations for Howard University and the Columbia Institution for Deaf Mutes were respectively $92,000 and $66,500. Although situated in the District of Columbia, both institutions draw students from a much wider area.

Bureau of Education.-For the current expenses of the Federal Bureau of Education the sum of $88,500 was allowed; for the schools for natives in Alaska $200,000, and for the reindeer service $5,000, both of which services are administered by the

Bureau.

Federal Aid to Industrial Education. -Every year gives new proof of the wise forethought which prompted lib

GENERAL STATISTICS OF EDUCATION

Total Enrollment - In most countries a full survey of education is attempted only at quinquennial or decennial periods, but through the agency of the Federal Bureau of Education the United States secures such a survey every year. In this work state and city authorities coöperate, as well as hundreds of individual institutions, and therefore any marked decline in school attendance or educational interest in any part of the country is very quickly detected.

On account of recent changes in statistical methods, and the delay in returns from several states, the record is incomplete for 1913. Estimates based upon full returns for 1911 and partial returns for 1912-13, however, indicate that school provision and attendance have kept pace with the growth in population. According to

the rate of increase in recent years, there were above 21 million children and youths under instruction in this country during 1913. Of this total, fully 96 per cent. were in the ordinary schools and higher institutions, and the remaining 4 per cent. in spe cial schools or in schools for special classes. As the movement and general relations of the student body change but little from year to year, the analysis of the complete returns enrolled, may be taken to illustrate for 1911, when 20,054,026 pupils were current conditions.

graphical Divisions. Omitting the Distribution of Enrollment by Geoschools classed as special, the distribution of the total pupils in public and private schools and colleges by geographical divisions was as follows in 1911:

The ratios of enrollment to population given above emphasize anew the fact that the adults of the southern sections are responsible for a larger proportion of children than the northern sections. Considering individual states, the highest proportion of the population under instruction was a little above 26 per cent., reported by two states, Mississippi and Tennessee. In four states, North Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Utah, the ratio exceeded 25 per cent. As a rule, these high ratios are due to the large enrollment in elementary schools. Utah is the only one of the states named in which the proportion of pupils in secondary and higher grades exceeds the proportion for the United States as a whole. The relative status of the

different geographic divisions in the latter respect is a matter of interest, as it bears directly upon the general intelligence of the entire country.

funds are the main source of support
It need hardly be said that public
for elementary and secondary schools;
it should be noted. also, that nearly
half the support of the higher insti-
tutions is derived from the same
source.

following particulars relate to the
Schools for Special Classes. — The
special schools that, as a rule, do not
come under the same administrations
as those included in the preceding
table; they show, however, the pur-
pose to bring the benefits of education
national domain.
to all classes of people within the

Analysis of Enrollment by Age and certain conditions disclosed by the folGrade. It is a matter of great conse-lowing analysis of enrollment in 1911 quence that the entire school popula- with regard to age and grade, based tion of the country has been brought upon the estimates of age groups under observation. But the mere item afforded by the Federal census of of enrollment signifies much less than 1910:

pils were in the first four grades, which nominally should be completed at 10 years of age. If the fifth grade be included in the analysis, the proportion of the entire enrollment rises to 80 per cent. In other words, at 12 years of age the vast majority of the children in the United States have done with school, and below that age there is an alarming amount of retardation. The education problem of the time is that of retaining children under instruction long enough to insure their preparation for intelligent and useful citizenship. This is essentially the problem of the public of common schools, which educate 92 per cent. of all children and youths.

Less than 8 per cent. of all pupils, it is seen. had reached the high school, and more than two-thirds of the pu

STATE SCHOOL SYSTEMS

Enrollment, Teachers, and Expendi- high schools, 537,000 teachers, and ture. There are 49 independent state an expenditure for the year of $447,school systems in the United States, 000,000, or nearly half a billion. The including that of the District of Co- distribution of this vast work by lumbia. They comprised during 1913 geographic sections, which varies little 18 million pupils in elementary and from year to year, stood thus in 1911:

each; Ohio raises 23 million, and Massachusetts, 21 million. An interesting fact is the increase in the amounts raised by local school tax in the southern states during the last decade.

Sources of Support.-The income for school purposes is derived from the sources and in the proportions here stated: permanent funds, 3.3 per cent.; state tax, 15.3 per cent.; local tax, 74 per cent.; other sources, 7.4 per cent. The total derived from per- In addition to the annual expendimanent funds is $15,071,836, and of ture for the support of the common this amount more than half is from schools, the investment in school six states, which report the following property is valued at 14 billion dolvalues: Texas, $2,441,302; North Da-lars. Part of this represents bonded kota, $1,419,076; Minnesota, $1,082,- debt, payments on which are not 383; Ohio, $1,027,485; Oklahoma, included in the current expenditure $933,851; Illinois, $904,539.

discussed above.

Local taxes, the chief source of in- Inequality of School Provision.come for the schools, furnished in The failure to retain children under round numbers $334,000,000. Three- instruction has already been considfourths of this amount is raised in ered, second only to this evil is that the North Atlantic and North Central of the inequality of school provision divisions of the Union. New York between the different divisions of the raises annually above $46,000,000 by country. This is readily shown by local school tax; Pennsylvania and comparisons in respect to a few essenIllinois follow with nearly $29,000,000 tials as here given:

munities each sufficient to itself. A new order of organic growth has set in and the public schools have not kept pace with that growth because they have been treated too exclusively as local interests. The consciousness of this mistake explains the new lines of approach to educational prob

The differences brought out in the above comparison are all explained by the great disparity in per capita expenditures. With the lowest rates go the lowest average salaries, the shortest school year, the lowest rate of average attendance, and the highest rate of illiteracy. New Aspects of Public Education.-lems and the new constructive agenBut the matter of public education is no longer to be measured in terms of state or sectional activity. In the last decade, profound changes have taken place in the very structure of our national life. The United States is no longer an aggregation of com

cies that are working out their solution. These problems present themselves under three aspects, rural, urban, and racial. Although these three aspects are fundamentally one, the emphasis in each case is upon different factors.

In view of the above comparison, it is not surprising that the rural population 10 years of age and over has twice as many illiterates as the corresponding urban population. This excess may be explained in part by the massing of the negroes in the southern states; but considering only the white people of these states, the ratio of illiteracy is 9 per cent. for the rural population, against 3 per cent. for the urban population. In a general way these distinctions have long been known, but their serious import has been overlooked. In this respect a change has taken place; the entire nation has suddenly been aroused on the subject, and many agencies, national and local, have been created for the upbuilding of the rural schools.

45.5 $10.60

Investigations. The division of Rural Education established in the Bureau of Education by Dr. Claxton in 1911 is carrying on the double work of investigation and propaganda. The committee on rural schools appointed by the National Education Association at the meeting of 1911 was continued in 1912 and again at the meeting of 1913. The members of this committee are recognized leaders in rural education and their recommendations carry weight with state legislatures. Several states, notably Vermont, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Dakota, have had special commissions during the year investigating rural conditions within their borders. Of all agencies engaged in this work, the most important is the Conference