TABLE 14A. PERCENTAGE CLASSIFICATION OF SCHOOL EXPENDITURE, SHOWING THE PERCENTAGE OF THE WHOLE EXPENditure DevoTED TO EACH OF THE OBJECTS NAMED. PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND, TOTAL ASSESSED VALUATION, And Value of SCHOOL PROPERTY. Permanet school funds.-Twenty-one States report permanent school funds yielding an annual revenue, nine of which are in the North Central Division. A number of other States are known to have some permanent funds not reported in the table. In some cases what was originally a permanent school fund has been so invested or disposed of that it is a mere matter of book-keeping whether it continues to appear as such or not, the practice varying in different States in that respect. Texas has the largest permanent school fund, both present and prospective; on account of the defective returns from that State, however, it is impossible to say what proportion of her total school revenue, or what revenue per capita, is derived from it. Illinois has the next largest permanent fund, nearly twelve million dollars, though only 6.1 per cent. of her whole school revenue is derived from it (Table 12 A, Column 2). Alabama derives a larger proportion of her school revenue from permanent funds than any other State, depending on that source for nearly one-fourth of the whole, though the amount of the fund itself is not reported. Total property valuation.-On account of the difference in the rates of assessment in the different States, conjoined to other circumstances, the statistics of total property valua tion are of a very uncertain character, and, as was stated in the last Report of this Office, can only be used as a general guide. They were introduced to meet the necessity that exists of providing some way of determining what proportion of their actual means the people of different localities are paying out for education. It may be that it would be preferable to compare the school expenditure with the expenditure for all purposes, State and local, as has been suggested by Superintendent Bettison, of New Orleans, were there not difficulties in the way of determining the latter quantity satisfactorily. School property. The value of school property has increased at a much greater rate, in every section of the country, than either the school population or attendance. (See also Table 16.) The average yearly increase in the value of school property for all the States reporting was 6.22 per cent., while that of school population was only 2.61 per cent. and that of average attendance 2.89 per cent. In the State of Missouri alone the increase in the value of school property was close upon two million dollars. The present value of school property, as related to population, attendance, etc., is given in Columns 12 to 15 inclusive. |