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Show Another Angle On School Costs We are told by some that we place too mui:h store in education, that we too greatly exalt our schools, and particularly par-ticularly that we spend too much for them. To what extent is this true? Here is a man, the head of a family, whom we have in mind. During 1928 this man had rendered to him a number num-ber of bills. One bill was for the protection of his family's future through life insurance. It totaled $270 for the year. Another was for the family automobile. Its cost, including in-cluding all items depreciation, operation op-eration and repairs was $1200 for the year. Another sizable bill came in for luxuries which he and the members mem-bers of the family had consumed. The principal items covered were candy, ice CTeam and similar confections, theatres, and tobacco. The bill for these luxuries came to $700. This man, we will agree, was pretty well off. He was wisely protecting pro-tecting his family through life insurance. in-surance. He was able to purchase $1200 worth of automobile transportation. transpor-tation. He and his wife and children were able to enjoy the luxuries of life to the tune of $700 a year. How much should1 such a citizen be willing to pay for the schooling of his children? If he expended $250 a year for this purpose would he be giving education too high a place in his scale of values? Answer this question as you will. The man described above is really Uncle Sam. If you will take the preceding pre-ceding figures and add seven zeros to them you will have what Uncle Sam: paid in 1928 for four important items ' of national expenditcre: Life insurance $2,700,000,000 j Passenger automobiles .12,000,000,000 Certain luxuries 7,000,000,000 Public education 2,500,000,000 It is true that most families are not as well off as the one described above. Most families in 1928 were not able to spend $270 for life insurance, $1200 for automobiles, or $700 for luxuries.. But neither did most families fami-lies pay as much as $250 a year for the schooling of its children. Speaking Speak-ing in averages, if a family spent less for the first three items, it spent pro-porWonatelf pro-porWonatelf less for education. It is the proportion which counts, not the actual amounts spent. Assume any kind of a family you wish. Take the figures given above and make your own divisions. Then look at your results and you will find that, on the average, every time we spend a dollar for schools we spend $1.09 for life insurance, $4. SO for passenger automobiles, and $2.80 for articles clearly in the luxury class. What do you think about it? Does the cost of schools indicate we are placing education too high in the scale of values? o |