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Sources of revenue for the public schools.-Public-school funds are secured from three different administrative divisions of the State gov ernment, viz, the State itself, the county, and the local district in which the given school is located.

The total amounts derived annually from each of these sources is indicated in table 10. The fourth column headed "Other general fund sources" includes revenues arising from fines, excheats, etc., which are allotted to the support of the public schools.

It should be noted that the funds indicated do not cover the cost of capital outlays, only the current costs. The table shows that although the State has increased the revenues from $6 per census child to $20 per census child the local district appropriations have increased in a still greater proportion. This is shown also in the table exhibiting the increase in the annual cost per pupil from $25.55 in 1890 to $118.34 in 1931.

TABLE 10. Sources of revenues for public schools, 1890–1933

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TABLE 10.-Sources of revenues for public schools, 1890-1933-Continued

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The yield from the State current school fund.-The accompanying table 11 shows the operation of the State current school fund since 1895. The first four columns deal with the levies; the last three deal with the collections the following year. Owing to the fact that the school year and the tax year do not coincide, part of the tax money which should be collected during a certain school year may not be collected until the following year.

It should be kept in mind that this table refers only to the funds provided by the State as a whole. The county and district funds are not included. The year 1895 marks the beginning of the famous "barefoot schoolboy law." The amount per census child in the initial law was $6, which was raised to $20 in 1920. Superintendent Showalter succeeded in 1933 in increasing it much more.

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Number of teachers and salaries.-Table 12 shows the number of teachers year by year from 1890-1933 in the elementary schools and the high schools and the average annual salaries paid.

The number of teachers employed has increased proportionately much faster than the population. In 1890 the population of the State was 357,232 and at present it is 1,563,396. At the beginning of statehood there was 1 teacher for approximately every 222 inhabit ants. At the present there is 1 teacher for every 130 persons. The proportion of high-school teachers has increased much more rapidly than the proportion of elementary teachers. In 1890 only 1 percent of all teachers in the State were in the high schools. In 1934 about 25 percent were teaching in the high schools.

Teachers who are inclined to murmur because of low salaries would be encouraged by comparing the average annual salaries of 40 years ago with those paid today. At that time the average annual salary was $266.30 and in 1931 it was $1,547.46. Of course, the school year is now longer than then, 8.96 months, compared with 4.86 months; but teachers then could earn little in the periods of idleness, and summer sessions and other college terms were not arranged advantageously. Even 20 years ago the salaries were only about half as large

as now.

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School attendance and graduation.-A marvelous story is unfolded in tables 13 and 14, exhibiting the enrollment in the successive years of the State's history. It is not merely in the increasing numbers year by year, since that would be expected to some extent because of the increase in population. The percentage of census children actually enrolled, however, has changed from 64 percent to 80 per

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cent. The most striking change is in the holding power of the school. In 1890 less than 1 percent of the enrollment was in the high school; today, nearly 30 percent. The number who graduate from the high school is also phenomenal. Several of these points are discussed more fully in the chapter on secondary education.

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