The news in this publi
cation is released for the
press on receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
MEWS LETTER
Published Weekly by the
University of North Caro
lina for the University Ex
tension Division.
MARCH 12,1924
CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
THE UNIVERSITY OP NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
. VOL. X, NO. 17
Editorial Board* EL 0. Braason. 3. H. Cfobbs, Jr., L. R. Wllaon, E!. W. Eoisht, D. D. Carroll, J. B.BolUtt, 3. W. Odam.
Bnterod u Bocood-clua matter Novoobor 14, 1914, at the Postofflee at Chapel Hill, If. C., ander the actof Aofirust 24. 19X9
WHITE TEACHER SALARIES IN U. S.
WHITE TEACHER SALARIES
We doubt if there is another salaried,
class in the United States whose aver
age annual income varies as greatly in
the various states as does the average
salary paid public school teachers. The
table presented elsewhere shows the
average annual salary paid all white
public school teachers in each state for
the year 1921-22. It is based on infor
mation furnished by the respective
state superintendents of public instruc
tion, in reply to a questionnaire recent
ly sent out. While the average salary
has been definitely computed for moat
of the states, for a few states, duly
designated in the table, it is only ap
proximately correct.
New York state pays ber white
school teachers an average annual sal
ary of $1,938 and ranks first^ain the
United States. In Arkansas the aver
age annual salary paid white teachers
is approximately- $550. The average
white teacher in New York state re
ceives nearly four timesj as much a
year as the average white teacher in
Arkansas, or so in 1921-22. It is doubt
ful if there is another salariedJlor wage
earning class in the United ^States
whose income is so greatly affected by
geographic location, or state lines.
However there is not much uniform
ity in the salaries paid teachers by geo
graphic areas. New England states
rank both high and low. Western, mid
dle western, and eastern states are all
mixed together. The nearest approach
to a uniform grouping occurs with the
southern states, all of which rank very
low in teacher salaries. Texas and
Oklahoma rank highest in the South,
both paying their white teachers an
average salary of about $1,000 a year.
No southern state pays as much as the
average for all the states, by about
two hundred dollars.
A Western State'
We are presenting below the average
salary schedule of a western state for
the year 1921-22. It is interesting to
note that the average salary paid all
white teachers in North Carolina for
the same year was $720, which was also
about the average for the entire South.
Kindergarten: (all women)
Supervisors $2,401
Principals 1,646
Teachers - 1,399
Elementary:
District Superintendents—
Men $2,966
Women 2,6^
Principals, Men 1,969
Women 1,612
Teachers, Men 1,656
Women 1,669
Supervision of subjects:
Men $2,632
Women ... 2,396
Teachers of subjects:
Men $1,746
Women 1,714
High School:
Principals, Men $2,960
Women 2,796
Teachers, Men 2,201
Women 2,046
Why High or.Low
The average annual ''salaries paid
teachers depend upon many factors,
the most important of which are:
1. The length of the school term. In
many of the western and northern
states the public schools’run from eight
to nine months upon anjaverage. Since
teachers are paid monthly'salaries, the
total salary is much higher in such
states than in North'^sCarolina or the
other southern states^which have rela
tively short schoollterms, counting all
schools.
2. Cost of living. The salary paid
.teachers is very largelyiaffected by liv
ing cost, which varie8*greatly. In the
sparsely settled West and in northern
urban states it costs^more jto live than
in the South, where most of the teach
ers live in the country or in small
towns where board andjrent are rela
tively cheap.
3. Size of schools. It is almost uni
versally true that the best and most
expensive teachers are found in large
schools, while weak one-teacher schools
are operated by the poorest and cheap
est teachers. Accordingly states which
have relatively large numbers of one
and two teacher schools have large
numbers of cheap and ill-prepared
teachers. The South has more than
her share of microscopic schools taught
by untrained teacher:?, who would be
expensive at half the price.
4. Quality of teachers. Poor teach
ers can be hired cheaply. Where the
quality of teachers‘is low the salary is
low. Poor pay is both the cause and
the result of poor teachers. In states
as in counties and towns, the best
teachers are found where the pay is
best. The North and the West pay
salaries that attract ability and reward
training and experience. In those
states teaching is a profession, an oc
cupation chosen for a life work. ■
In Montana, which is a typical illus
tration, ninety-two percent of the ele
mentary teachers have had more than
two years -of high school work and
twelve weeks of normal training. Nine
ty-six percent of the high school teach
ers have had at least two years of col
lege work. Seventy-six percent of the
high school teachers have had four
years or more of college and normal
training.
6. Wealth. Naturally the taxable
wealth behind each school child has
much to do with the quality and pay of
the teacher employed. Teacher sala
ries are low in the South, especially in
rural schools, because our per inhabit
ant wealth is relatively small.
In North Carolina
White teachers in North Carolina in
1921-22 received annual salaries averag
ing all the way from $1,259 in New
Hanover county to $402 in Watauga.
The average for the entire state for all
white teachers was $720 and the aver
age was less in only four states, or pos
sibly five if we knew the facts' for
Mississippi. In fourteen counties the
average salary was less than five hun
dred dollars a year, while in only
six counties was it as much as one
thousand dollars. In only one county
in North Carolina are white teachers as
well paid upon an average as in the
United States as a whole. Ninety-nine
of our counties pay leas than the aver
age for the states of the Union, while
sixty-two counties .pay their white
teachers less than seven hundred dol
lars a year upon an average. Good
schools on the whole are impossible in
such counties because it is impossible
to employ good teachers at siich ridic
ulously low wages.
Teachers’ salaries vary greatly in
the one hundred counties of North Ca
rolina. There are three main factors
that determine what our teachers re
ceive. (1) The length of the school
term, which averages 119 days in
Mitchell county, and 180 days in New
Hanover, for white schools. (2) The
quality of the teachers. In Dur
ham county the average teacher has
had the equivalent of two and a half
years in college, while in Cherokee the
average teacher lacks nearly a half
year of completing a high school course.
(3) Local wealth and willingness, both
of which vary greatly. A few very
puor counties have good teachers, pay
good salaries, and have long school
terms. Such counties have outstand
ing leadership, usually the county sup
erintendent, who under our school sys
tem is the key factor in the local school
situation.
As a rule the wealthier counties pay
good salaries, especially in the urban
schools. It is impossible for the poorer
rural counties to have as good teachers
and schools as the wealthier ones, with
out heroic sacrifice. This is evident
when we find that the taxable wealth
per white inhabitant is fifteen times
as large in the richest county as in the
the poorest county.
We are making great progress with
our schools. Millions are being poured
into modern buildings. The quality of
teachers is being improved, the school
term is being lengthened^ and in every
way we are gradually moving ahead.
Butlest we become boastful, let us re
member that we fail to pay our teach
ers a living wage, upon an average.
Only four states pay their white teach
ers less per year than North -Carolina,
whose average is only $720, while in
A STATE SYSTEM
The principle embodied^|in the
state equalization fund must be
further extended. The equalization
fund has done much to alleviate
•alary conditions in poor counties,
but it is inadequate. The present
development in North Carolina is
the county unit idea, where every
tax dbllar goes to support every
school in the county. This is a great
improvement over the local district
tax idea, and it is the ne^t logical
step forward. But it should not be
the ultimate goal. Instead of a
county-wide we need a state-wide
school system, with strong county
units, in which, to a large,^extent,
every dollar of taxable wealth in
the state goes to support every
school in the state. Educational
opportunities for all children will
never approach equality until a
state-wide school system is adopted.
Public education is the business of
the state, and school facilities should
be fairly equal for all children, ir
respective of place of birth.
As long as teachers’ salaries are
three times as high in one county as
in another, one county will have ex
cellent schools and the other will
have schools hardly worthy of the
name. Such is the present situa
tion in North ■ Carolina, and there
seems to be no real remedy except
a state-wide system of public edu
cation.
debate subjects is available. Libraries
may be kept three weeks. No charge
is made for the loan of libraries, but
borrowers pay the postage both from
and to Raleigh.
The Library Commission has also
special collections of declamations,
recitations, school plays, and material
for the celebration of holidays. Books
on educational topics can be borrowed
by teachers and parents.
Address all applications for books to
North Carolina Library Commission,
Raleigh, N. C.
seventy counties the average is less
than this amount. Such pay is not a liv
ing wage'.
The teacher is the school and no state
can build a public school system on the
minimum wage basis. In the main our
schools are taught by itinerant and ill-
prepared teachers. Because the pay is
ridiculously low, the turnover of new
teachers is remarkably high. The aver
age teacher teaches for a season or
two, marries and quits. Teaching is
not a profession, for the main body of
teachers. It’s a game, an experience,
an outing for many who have been pent
up at home.
Public education will never be a big
success until teaching becomes a pro
fession. The salary must be sufficient
to attract men and women of ability
and retain them after they have be
come experienced and capable of doing
effective work.—S. H. H., Jr.
STATE LIBRARY SERVICE
The North Carolina State Library
Commission, Raleigh, N. C., offers to
lend collections of books or individual
books to North Carolina farmers, their
families, schools, or communities, as
follows:
A Traveling Library
Each traveling library contains 40
volumes, of which one-third are chil
dren’s books. The remainder includes
good stories and popular non-fiction.
The traveling libraries for schools are
made up entirely of children's books
arranged according to grade.
People in any North Carolina commun
ity may get a traveling library, keep it
three months, and then get another.
The only expense to the community is
the cost of transportation, and if that
exceeds $1.00 the Library Commission
pays the excess.
Special Subjects
Books on many different subjects are
also lent to residents of North Carolina
by the Library Commission,. Their col
lection of books on agriculture is very
complete and includes material on sub
jects most important to farmers. Write
the commission forgbooks on.fany sub
ject that interests you.
The only cost to the borrower for
this service is that of postage which
can be refunded to the Library Com
mission when the books are returned.
Free Debate Libraries
Debate libraries are lent to schools
and debating societies. Material on 80
B. ANDL. PLAN FOR FARMERS
In the many schemes to aid our
farmers in furnishing them financial
aid there is a general agreement in
that they all simply provide loans or
ways of getting them. -Is this suffi
cient aid? Is not something more need
ed? ,
I have been surprised that some of
the farmer’s friends have not come to
the conclusion that simply loaning,
though on a long time, does not always
help the borrower. Money borrowed
must be paid back with interest even
when borrowed on long time. No one
is benefited by a loan who is not
taught, if he does not know, how to be
ready to meet his payments as they
fall due.
All borrowers must be taught thrift
and economy for the loans to be of
real benefit to them. Simply making
the loans on long time will not do this.
It merely makes the payments smaller
extending them over a longer period of
payment. The borrower with the cap
ital loaned must make whatever is nec
essary to repay the loan and interest,
or he is no better off at the end than
when he started. He must save and
lay aside in one way or another.
The operations of Building and Loan
Associations show that they are the
best teachers of thrift while furnishing
loans for present use. Their principle
where used has taken many wage earn
ers who knew nothing of saying and
made them home owners and more, for
the principle once learned and prac
ticed becomes a habit and continues to
guide the daily life.
The Act providing for Land and Loan
Associations (Chapter 172, Laws 1916)
is-nothing more than adapting the prin
ciples of Building and Loan Associa
tions to the conditions and needs of the
farmer. It is reasonable and work
able-holds out no false promises but
will improve and pull out of the hole
any neighborhood of farmers, land
owners or tenants.
It offers no get-rich-quick scheme but
a reasonable and understandable plan
to help the farmer, his family, his ten
ant, and even his hired help. It does
not propose to accomplish this at once
and without the help of the farmer,
but gradually and surely. The amount
paid during the season of the market
crop to equal twenty-five (26c) cents a
week will in about six years make
$100.00 in net clear money.
The Land and Loan plan has all the
benefits and advantages of the Credit
Ujiions and other asaociations or plans
with the added advantages of teaching
the borrower to save and enabling him
to improve his condition permanently.
I would commend this plan to those
who desire to lead the farmers or even
help them. "Write to the Insur
ance Commissioner for a copy of the
law. It is plain and workable.-J. R.
Young, N. C. Insurance Commissioner.
NEED MORE PEOPLE
The one distinct sign of new popula
tion moving into North Carolina is seen
in eastern Carolina, and now is a good
time for us to undertake to secure a
desirable class of newcomers for the
coastal region. Many newcomers have
gone into the Sandhills peach and fruit
belt, and others have come to eastern
Carolina’s black land section to go into
the corn growing and livestock indus
tries. These newcomers are northern
ers and westerners, outside of the
small colony of thrifty foreigners set
tled around Wilmington by Mr. Hugh
MacRae.
At least three new developments in
ea.stern North Carolina are attracting
widespread attention at the north and
west. They are the peach orchard in
dustry, the Hugh MacRae community
farms settlements, and the Bolton
drainage development. Those three
can be taken advantage of for an im
mense amount of genuine publicity for
eastern North Carolina. They are al
ready exciting the wonder of progres
sive men in all parts of the country.
One of the problems standing in the
way of progress on a wider scale in
eastern North Carolina is lack of popu
lation, and if we hope for our commun- •
ities to grow it must be through devel
opment of the splendid resources of
this section. More population means
greater production and it is upon pro
duction that prosperity in this section
depends. The time is ripe for a great
regional development and there are
great opportunities in it for all of us.
While the migration of new population
has started this way we should give it
our immediate attention.—Wilmington
Star.
AVERAGE SALARIES PAID WHITE TEACHERS
Per School Year in the United States 1921-.22
The following table showing the average annual salaries paid all white
school teachers in each state is based on information secured from the Superin
tendents of Public Instruction of the respective states.
New York state ranks first, paying all white public school teachers, ele
mentary and high school, an average salary of $1938 in 1921-22. Arkansas comes
last with an average salary of approximately $560 per year for white teachers.
The 16,198 white teachers in North Carolina in 1921-22 received a total sal
ary of $10,963,682. The average annual salary paid all white teachers was
$720, and the average was less in only four states, all southern with far less
total or per inhabitant wealth.
The main factors that account for high or low teacher salaries are: length
of the school term, the size of the schools, the cost of living, taxable wealth,
and quality of teachers which is both a cause and result.
Kansas and Mississippi are omitted for lack of data.
S. H. Hobbs, Jr.
Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina
Rank State
• Average annual
Rank
State
Average annual
New York....
salary paid
white teachers
$1938
24
Pennsylvania...
salary paid
white teachers
$1172
2
California ....
1726*
26
Indiana
1160
3
Connecticut .
1675*
26
Colorado
1100+
4
New Jersey ..
1628
26
Louisiana
1100
6
Massachusetts
1617
26
Wisconsin
1100
6
Arizona
1600
29
Ohio
1000*
7
Woqhinptnn .
1428
29
Texas
1000*
8
Rhode Island.
1408
29
Oklahoma
1000*
9
Nevada
1379
82
North Dakota ..
971
10
Illinois
1343
33 •
West Virginia ..
961
11
Iowa
1300*
34
New Hampshire
960*
12
New Mexico ..
1300*
36
Utah
948
13
Nebraska
1266
36
South Carolina.
834+
14
Maryland ....
1242
37
Florida
820*
16
Montana
1227
38
Virginia
818
16
Oregon
1226
39
Maine
816
17
Minnesota....
r. 1210
40
Missouri
760
18
Delaware ....
1200*
41
Kentucky
726
18
Idaho.
1200*
42
North Carolina.
720
18
Michigan
1200*
43
Alabama
638
18
South Dakota
1200*
44
Tennessee
634
18
Vermont
1200*
45
Georgia
.... 600*
18
Wvnmincr
15?no»
A rkansan
.,; 550*
Approximately correct, f 1922-23.^