OCR Text |
Show EDUCATIONAL NYS Inequalities Between Urban and Rural Secondary Education The following circular has been received re-ceived from the Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior: Statistics show that opportunity for secondary education is still largely an urban privilege. The proportion of pupils of high school age who are actuality ac-tuality in high school is much greater in urban centers than in rural communities. com-munities. Our total rural population is only about 3 per cent less than our urban population. It would therefore be fair to assume, even when we allow for the country children who go to city high schools, that the proportion propor-tion of pupils in urban high schools to those in rural high schools should have a ratio of about 5 to 4. But statistics sta-tistics disclose an actual ratio of 7 to 3 and indications are that this disparity dis-parity is growing greater rather than less. The six-year period from 1917-1918 1917-1918 to 1923-1924 shows an increase in pupil enrollment in urban high schools of 101.9 per cent whereas the increase for the rural high schools was only 22.4 per cent. Here we must allow for the city trend of populations popula-tions but this by no means accounts for this wide difference in increase. Equality in educational opportunity for every boy and girl is not only an ideal generally accepted among us but it is an ideal commonly regarded as essential to the success of a democracy. democ-racy. Many changes have occurred in recent years, especially in the cities, which have tended to make this ideal more nearly a fact, but there are still great problems to be solved if a secondary sec-ondary education is to be made accessible acces-sible to the rural child and if it is to be' made sufficiently attractive and practical to challenge his interest. Some plan of centralization seems to be indicated in-dicated if the inequalities still remaining re-maining are to be overcome. Any plan worthy of consideration necessarily neces-sarily involves larger administration units, better equipment, larger schools and a transportation scheme. Progress is being made along these lines but much is still to be accomplished if children are not to be penalized in the matter of secondary education because of the fact that they live in the small population centers. We must become more eonscious of the deficiencies so commonly found in small high schools and we should concern ourselves more about the methods through which permanent per-manent and progressive improvement can be effected in them if equality in educational opportunity is to-be brought about. |