North Carolina Newspapers

The «ews in this publi cation is released for the press on receipt. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA NEWS LETTER Prt>lisb#d Weekly by the University ef North Caro lina for the University Ex tension Division. MARCH 19,1024 CHAPEL HILL, N. C. eiTBRSITT or NORTH CAROUNA VOL. X, NO. 18 Bjltorlftl Bnardt S. G. Braasoa, 3. H. Hcbbfl, Jr.. L, R, Wilson, E. W. Kalcfit', V, 9. OmtoII, J. BiBvIHtt, 4. W. 0>iam. ■tered 818eeesd>€laM msttez Nevomber 14,1914. sttbePoatofflceat N.C., trader the aotof Aarnst: S4, 1S1| PUBLIC SCHOOL COSTS IN U. S. WHAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COST On each pupil enrolled in school in 1821-22 Wyoming spent for all school purposes $133.70 and' ranked first in the United States. Alabama spent only $20.34 and ranked last of all the states. The rank of the other states is shown in an accompanying table based on information recently secured from the State Superintendents of Pub lic Instruction of the respective states. We havt been unable to get a reply from the Superintendent in Misssis- sippi. The table reveals the fact that pub lic education is most expensive, per unit, in the western and middle west ern states. These states are sparsely populated, a condition which makes good schools, such as they usually have, ex pensive. Their per inhabitant wealth is large. Their recent outlay for mod ern buildings and the high salaries they pay teachers are other factors^that go to explain the high cost of education in these states. The eastern and urban"states rank a- bout mid-way. That is, the. cost of public schools per child enrolled in schcDl is neither very high nor very low. Such! states, because of their density of popH ulation, are able to have the best oC; schools at a moderate cost per unit. The-southern states form a group at the end of the table, which is to be ex pected. While the South is fairly dense ly populated, the bulk of the people live in the country, the per inhabitant wealth is small, about one-third of the population is- negro, and there is characteristic lack of willingness to tax ourselves for public education, or other public purposes. AJost of the southern states have tight-fisted notions about taxatioir, even for the support of schools. In North Carolina The total cost of public schools in North Carolina in 1921-22 was $21,649,- 696, distributed as follows: teaching, administration, operation and mainte nance, $16,530,808; outlay payments-for new buildings, sites, and repairs, 118,887. In other words the current cost of schools was about fifteen and one half million dollars. The. expendi tures for outlays come from bond sales largely, which bonds will be retired over a period of years. However, such outlay payments are included Jin the table of school costs for the year under esnsideration. The rank of North Ca rolina would be lower if outlay pay ments were omitted, because of our relatively large expenditure for new buildings. Counting all expenditures for school purposes per pupil enrolled in school North Carolina ranked forty-second with $27.39. This means that it cost only $27.39 upon an average to send a child to public school for a full school year. If only the current cost of schools is considered, thatfis if we de duct the money put into new buildings and the like, it cost an average of $20.- 60 per pupil enrolled in school to run the public schools of North Carolina. Thus it is seen that public education, when reduced to a unit basis is very inexpensive in North Carolina. It is impossible to conceive how a child could be educated at suchja small cost, except on the community or coopera tive tax basis. The average automo bile license tag costs almost as much as it costs to send a child to school a full school year in North Carolina. Wonderful progress has been made in public education in North Carolina. Expenditures for school purposes have meunted rapidly, and the. impression has become general that we are sup porting schools very generously. It is true that we have made remarkable progress, but we must not lose sight of the fact that we started" at the very bottom in the support of public schools. We must not be contented with what has been accomplished because as a matter of fact we have only made a very creditable start. The job is only begun. Lest we get too boastful, or before we begin to complain about the tax burden for §chool support, it is well to compare our rank with that of other states. The net total e^ependiture for all school purposes, current and outlay payments, in 1921-22 was ealy $27.89 per child enrolled is school. If the cost of new buildings and grounds is omitted, the current cost of public edu cation was only $29. M. But including the cost of new buildings, the public schools of North Carolina cost only one-third as much per child enrolled in school as the average cost for all the states. In other words, on each child enrolled in school in the United States, an average of about eighty dollars is spent for all school purposes, while the average for North Carolina is $27.39. If we spent three times as much on public education, 68 million dollars in stead of 21 millien dollars, we would be spending no more per pupil in school, or per inhabitant in the state, than the average now spent by all the states. There are three main reasons for the cheapness of public education in this state: short school terms, 189 days upon an average in 1921-22; low an nual salaries paid school teachers, $720 a year for white teachers and $413 for negro teachers, or an average of $664 for all teachers, and third the relative ly small investment in school buildings Aind. equipment, in proportion to our school population. ^ i Perhaps we rank better in schools ?-han we do in school expenditures. We do not know about that, but we do know that whatever our rank is in, the quality of schools, the cost of educa tion is still comparatively very small in North Carolina, and it will have to be considerably larger before we will be able to speak of our schools and our roads with equal pride.—S. H. H., Jr. WE DO NOT READ ENOUGH From time to time we have printed facts showing how North Carolina com pares with other states as a reading state. These studies have shown that North Carolina ranks very low in the percent of her inhabitants who sub scribe to the leading magasines of the country. I The National Geographic Society has recently reported that only one out of every 486 people in North Carolina is a subscriber to the National Geographic, the best magazine ef its kind in the world. North Carolina ranks forty-; third in proportion of population to subscribers. All Northern, all Western and eight Southern states rank ahead of us. Because of our interest in edu-! cation and science it weuld seem that we should have mere readers of this as well as other worth-while magazines. Daily Newspapers In the percent of our people who take daily newspapers we again rank low. On June 10, 1922, the total circu lation of daily newspapers in North Carolina was 181,781, or one paper for every 13.5 inhabitants. Only three states ranked below us in the number of inhabitants per daily newspaper. In Massachusetts there was one daily paper for every 1.9 inhabitants. Public Libraries In 1920, the latest date for which we have complete data, only one state, Arkansas, had fewer bound volumes in public libraries per 1000 population than North Carolina. We had 66 bound vol umes in public libraries of all kinds for every 1000 inhabitanU. New Hamp shire had 1978 bound volumes for every thousand of her population. Perhaps it is in public libraries that our defici ency in facilities for reading is greatest. This condition is due to the fact that the great masses in this state live in the open country and in small towns. We lack a sufficient number of nucle ating centers large enough to support * public libraries, in erder to rank well as a reader of books. Traveling Libraries There is only one efficient way to get books to the people under the popula tion conditions that exist in North Ca rolina, and that is by establishing coun ty-wide traveling libraries in every county in the state. The books must be taken to the people since the people do not live under conditions that enable them to have ready access to books. The State has a package library ser vice and it is doing splendid work. It is a good beginning but at best such CAROLINA DRAMATICS The Bureau of Community Drama •f the University Extension Divi sion was established to encourage the writing and production of origi nal plays and pageants and to raise the standard of dramatic production throughout the state. The work has been received with so much enthu- ■iasm and appreciation that it has seemed advisable to perfect a state wide organization to co-ordinate the various activities. Thus the curtain goes up on THE CAROLINA DRA MATIC ASSOCIATION. North Carolina'is becoming known throughout the country for its in terest in things dramatic and for its contributions to a real native litera ture. So far these achievements have been largely due to the work of The Carolina Playmakers of the Univer sity, yet it is felt that there is much talent throughout tho^;state which should be developed and employed. The services of Miss Ethel ^Theo- dora Rockwell, a dramatic director of wide experience, are available to schools, communities, andL^clubs. Where practicable she will direct the complete production of a play; or she will assist in the final prepar ations for a performance, rehears als, stage settings,demonstration of make-up, and other problems of production. No charge is made for her services but the organization re questing these is expeeted^to pay all traveling expenses and to provide entertainment.- There is no fee for information and advice. In|making application address: Frederick H. Koch, Director Bureau of Community Drama, University Extension Divi sion, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Two important features which the Bureau wishes to develop are a Dra matic Institute to be held in Chapel Hill April the 4th and 5th, and a Spring Festival Week throughout the state when all the clubs belong- mg t« The Carolina Dramatic Asso- eiation will stage in their respective osmmunities an outdoor dramatic prsgraai. Such are the beginnings of a real People's Theatre in North Carolina. service can reach only’relatiVely a few people. We need a great state-wide travel ing library service with a str^g local unit in every county. With such a system the books would be interchange able between the counties, allowing a maximum of reading service with a minimum outlay for books. The mind develops by contact with other minds. Books, papers, and mag azines are the connecting links. The mental development of our people is retarded because they do not have ac cess to good literature. The traveling library, under North Carolina condi tions, is the best way to get good liter ature into the homes of our country and small-town dwellers. Our children, es pecially, need access to books. SHORT IN MEDICAL SCHOOLS The Tri-State Medical Association is composed of the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. In these three states there are five medical schools, the two in North Ca rolina being two-year schools. All these are class A schools, and they en rolled in 1923 six hundred and seventy- seven men, one hundred and ninety of these being from states other than those in which the schools are placed, while on the other hand there are 497 men from these states enrolled as stu dents in schools outside these three, or a total of 966 students from the three states enrolled in the medical schools of the country. In other words, only about fifty percent of students from these states are enrolled in medical schools in their own states. This figure.^is swol len, of course, by the fact that North Carolina maintains no four-year school. North Carolina, with its two two-year scheols, attracts twelve men from oth er states, and enrolls in other states 260. South Carolina, with one four- year school, attracts |ix from other states, and registers m other states 89. Virginia, with two four-year schools, attracts 172 and loses 180. A- bout one-eighteenth of the students en rolled in medical schools of the country are from the three states which contain roughly just about the same propor tion—that is, about one-eighteenth—of the country’s population. On the other hand Virginia, with its two four-year schools, is the only one of these three states at present bearing its due share of the education of the medical students from the three states, ' Shortage of Doctors In the proportion, too, of practicing physicians to population, both the Ca- rolinas are, with North Dakota, at the foot of the list of states. The figures for North Carolina are one physician to 1,133 population, and those for South Carolina are about the same. The situ ation in North Carolina is still further complicated by the fact that both its schools are two-year schools, and that it is altogether possible that, aside from difficulties that ipereasing en rollment in four-year schools all over the country will bring in locating men desiring to enter their third year from two-year schools, the two-year schools may, within the next fifteen or twenty years, find theories of medical,educa tion so altered that the two-year school as an independent unit may cease to exist. At present there is a father sharp separation between the labora tory instruction of the first two years and the clinical instruction of the sec ond two; a separation that, however, is gradually becoming blurred and may sooner or later give way to a more uni fied type of curriculum in which clini cal applications are taught along with laboratory work from the beginning. There seems to be a growing dissatis faction with the present medical cur riculum, and a growing tendency to move in precisely this direction. Should this tendency prevail, the two-yeffr school without hospital facilities would be in the end as unable to maintain it self as was the old type of didactic school as the importance of hospital contacts came to be realized. A Ftur-Year Medical School We at the University of North Caro lina, keeping all these facts ia mind, have felt ^at we sheuld press for the expansion of the present two-year school into a four-year school at the earliest possible moment, and we ^re pose to continue in our efforts toward this end. A territory which, like these three states, is only caring for half of its medical students in its own schools, is certainly not overloaded with facili ties for medical education, and should the two-year North Carolina schools some day be forced to discontinue, the situation will become very difficult. To sum it all up, it seems clear that medical education has succeeded with out undue disarrangement of condi tions, considering the country as a whole, in placing itself on a basis which enables medical schools today to deal with a group of men with sufficient preliminary training to profit by thor oughly scientific methods of instruction in th^modern sense of the term. It is now the medical curriculum itself, rather than standards, on which atten tion is becoming focused, and it is without doubt in this region that the next great advance in medical educa tion is due to come.—The concluding remarks of President H. W. Chase in his recent address before the Tri-State Medical Society. A LAND OF CHILDREN One of the most interestii-g facts that has come to our attention in recent years is that although North Carolina ranks thirteenth^in total population, there are only six states that have more children enrolled in their public schools. We do not think that this is due to the fact that our enrollment rate is high, but rather it is the result of an excess ive birth rate, and our large number of children of school ages in proportion ' to our population. Having the highest birth rate in the United States, a rate which two years ago was thirty percent above the average for the United States, means that we have more children of school ages in proportion to our population than any other state. Twenty-nine percent of our total popu lation was enrolled in public graded schools in 1921-22. Truly North Caro lina is a land of children. However, in school attendance on enrollment we show up miserably. Of the children enrolled only 72.6 percent were in daily attendance and attend ance was poorer in only ten states, mainly southern. A very large part of the money on public schools in North Carolina is absolutely wasted be cause 27.6 percent of the school chil dren are absent every day upon an aver age. Evidently our compulsory attend ance law is misnamed. THE COST OF PUBLIC EDUCATION Per Pupil Enrolled in School 1921-22 The following table showing the total school expenditures per pupil en rolled in school is based on information secured from the Superintendents ef Public Instruction of the .respective-states. In 1921-22 Wyoming spent for all school purposes an average of $183.70 on each pupil enrolled in her public schools. The average cost of public educa tion per pupil enrolled was smallest in Alabama where it amounted to only $20.34. North Carolina spent a total of $21,649,696 on public schools, and she had enrolled in school 768,698 pupils. The total expenditure averaged $27.89 per pupil enrolled, and it was less in only five states. The average cost in North Carolina per pupil enrolled in school is about one-third the average for all the states, and one-fifth the average for Wyoming. A most interesting fact is that North Carolina ranks 13th in total popula tion, yet only six states had more children enrolled in school in 1921-22. They were New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illmois, Texas, and California. S. H. Hobbs, Jr. Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina Rank State School Expendi ture per pupil enrolled 1 Wyoming $133.70 2 Arizona 126.80 3 Nevada 124.44 4 Montana 128.81 6 South Dakota 116.80 6 New Jersey 114.96 7 California.. 109.77 8 Minnesota 106.08 9 New York 108,60 10 Iowa 101.30 11 Oregon 100.86 12 Indiana 99.17 13 Ohio 95.06 14 Washington 94.67 15 Nebraska 93.36 16 Wisconsin 91.86 17 Connecticut 90.06 18 North Dakota 89.16 19 Massachusetts 87,07 20 Utah 84.82 21 Illinois 83.77 22 Kansas 81.48 23 Colorado 76.16* 24 Pennsylvania . 76.00 *•1920 Rank State School Expendi ture per pupil enrolled 26 New Hampshire $72.88 26 Michigan 71.81 27 Idaho 71.46 28 Rhode Island 70.09 29 Vermont 66.22 30 New Mexico 66.27 31 Delaware 63.78 82 Maryland 60.26 38 Louisiana 67.17 34 Missouri 66.00 36 Maine 64.17 36 West Virginia 51.60' 37 Oklahoma 47.83 38 Florida 41.06 39 Virginia 36.69 40 Texas 30.62 41 Kentucky 30.00 42 North Carolina 27.39 43 Tennessee 24.65 44 South Carolina 24.10 46 Arkansas 21.27 46 Georgia 21.10 47 Alabama 20.84 Mississippi, no data.