Show A Comparison of School Finances HOWARD McDONALD Salt Lake City's new superintendent of schools who w was formerly connected with the San Francisco Francisco Francisco Fran Fran- cisco school system cited some figures t time tle ie other day in a talk before the Exchange club which were quite astonishing Comparing the Salt Lake and San Francisco school systems from the standpoint of financial position he declared that Salt Lake City is is' faced with the difficult problem of operating a system m for students on a budget of approximately whereas San Francisco with students has a budget of approximately Thus San Francisco F with only about twice the number of students is able to spend about 4 tio tines times s as much money on onI I their education as a's we can This is an interesting situation which deserves analysis Obviously the great difference in expenditures per student works a hardship on the administrative and teaching personnel of Salt Lake City relative to the personnel in San Francisco Our school chool people have to work harder tarde for less money It quite likely works a hardship also on the school students of this city because they can hardly get as good an education as can the students in San Francisco when only about half as much money is spent on their education What's the answer Is it that Salt Lake City is more penurious in providing m money ney for school operation than San Francisco Analysis indicates this is s not true San Francisco's estimated population is s about 4 3 1 times Salt Lakes Lake's estimated wartime population of and San Francisco's school budget is exactly 4 3 1 times Salt Lakes Considering San Francisco's far greater wealth Salt Lake is doing very well to maintain equality of f financing on a basis of relative lations The answer to this sharp harp difference in school finances then can only be that San Francisco does not have the number of children it should have on a basis of relative populations Instead Instead In In- stead of having more than 4 times as many school children as Salt Lake City it has only a little over twice as many San Francisco isn't doing the job it ought to do of raising and educating edu edu- eating cating future generations of Americans It is not Salt Lake i City which is failing filing to meet its responsibilities it is San Fran Fran- cisco And there is only one answer we can see t to that problem to to let the people who dont don't raise and educate the children of tomorrow pay far h heavier avier federal taxes t relieving lieving proportionately proportionately proportion proportion- the federal taxes of those who are raising r the children That relief relic would enable the latter to pay the heavier r local taxes 5 required to carry their greater reater burden of education |