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Show EDUCATIONAL NEWS The following circular on rural school consolidation has been received from the Bureau of Education, Department Depart-ment of the Interior. "Consolidation of Schools and Transportation Trans-portation of Pupils," which has just been published by the TJ. S. Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior, Inter-ior, shows the progress made in the several States during the biennium 1924-26 in providing larger schools and transportation to school at public expense ex-pense for rural children. In general, State reports indicate that substantial progress has been made in all sections of the country, as in previous bienni-ums. bienni-ums. Reports from a few States show greatly diminishing numbers of one-.teacher one-.teacher schools. Small rural schools are being supplanted mainly by large type organizations capable of giving educational service of the highest grade to country boys and girls. "The number of one-teacher schools reported for 1926 was 161,531 in the 48 States. This is 5,886 less than the number reported for 1924. The difference differ-ence indicates the number of these small schools which were closed or centralized during the biennium 1924-26. 1924-26. The per cent of teachers employed in one-teacher schools during the school year 1925-26 varied from 2.3 in New Jersey to 58.7 in South Dakota, The number of consolidated schools in 1926 in the 48 States was 16,674, which is an increase of 1,761 over the number num-ber reported in 1924. The rate of increase in-crease in number of consolidated schools since the U. S. Bureau of Education Edu-cation began collecting data relative to them in 1918 has been about 1,000 a year and the decrease in the number num-ber of one-teacher schools during this same period has been more than 4,500 annually." |