OCR Text |
Show School Cost And School Support ' The constantly inoreasin; cost of public ediu-ation, paralleling that of living and a government in general if of concern to legislators and citizens citiz-ens generaily. Recently the federal government has been reducing the erst of maintaining its v.ivioa-s establishments es-tablishments and activities and correspondingly cor-respondingly reducing ineom1 taxes crd other forms of federal taxation. As yet, however the relief in the total taxiation exacted from the average aver-age cifizen is slight as costs of state County; local and municipal government; govern-ment; have remained the same or even increased, thus offsetting federal fed-eral reductions. The cost of maintaining main-taining public education. Tne sources from which funds are received receiv-ed for-, school supp'irr. methods of distributing state moneys among local schools and districts so as more nearly to equalise educational opportunities op-portunities of childreen and tax burd ns of "citizens, are matters of paramount-importance to legislators and others responsibli for enacting or recommending laws govornin? the support, of public education. It is. recognized that the costs of education have increased greatly since 191-1, that public spirited citizens citiz-ens desire to continuee to support schools liberally, and that they must be conducted economically. Judgement Judge-ment cannot be passed on the necessity neces-sity of school expenditures and their increase year by year except in the light of comparison 'villi other factors fact-ors conditioning the cost, including, of course, the different purchasing power of the dollar in the respective years considered. Mitigating Factors Information collected in the United states Bureau of Education comparing compar-ing annual expenditures in the years 3 913, 1918, 1 9 2 1) 1922, and 1924 with the purchasing power of the ('ollar in these yea" indicates that s.'hpol costs hav? not increased to the degree many persons thought; to the extent that figures shewing r atual expenditures alone, unmodified unmodif-ied by consideration of the decrease ! urchasing power of the dollar ai d 1 y the increase in school attendance, vould indicate. For instance, from 1913 to 1924 t.'ie total expenditures for public i:hools in the United States increased i.'om 522 millions of dollars to 1.821 Millions, or an increase of 429 j urcent. But when the reduced pnr-r.'iasing pnr-r.'iasing power of the dollar is taken i .to account, the increase in purchase j i ig power of the total expenditures 1 'jcomes only 102 percent When re-i. re-i. ignition is also given to the fact tliat the average daily attendance in f'ementary and secondary schools in-i in-i eased by about 35 percent the real . crease in school costs per pupi; is c scovered to be about fifty percent. |