397, or an increase of nearly $40,000 over last year's figures. The per capita for each child of school age for the coming year shows an increase of three cents over the year 1914-15, or $2.78. It must be evident that the increase in our school funds is lagging behind our increasing school population and our advancing school ideals. This condition has been emphasized by a decision of the Supreme Court which practically makes it impossible for any board of education to require more than a reasonable incidental fee as a condition precedent to admitting any pupil to the school. The decision of the court does not indicate the exact amount of such fee, which must depend upon local conditions, but the implication is that not more than twenty-five cents per month for each child would be justified. It is expressly stated that the fee cannot be required to pay any part of the teacher's salary, but only for such necessities as fuel, crayon, and the like. The indications are that during the coming year the effort to collect supplemental fees for tuition purposes will be resisted much more stoutly than in the past, due to the fact that the knowledge of the attitude of our highest tribunal is becoming much more general.

This is borne out by the fact that the marticulation and incidental fees decreased from $429,605 in 1913-14 to $395,561 in 1914-15, or $34,043; while the amount derived from local taxation due to enhancing values, increased from $599,991.41 to $639,397.02. And this is well, for the collection of a tuition fee often places a burden upon those who have large families and upon the poor, which is, in some instances, prohibitive; while the levying of a tax upon all property works no hardship upon anybody. Local taxation is an adequate remedy, and perhaps the only one for local misunderstandings which arise from the enforced collection of tuition and incidental fees.

TACHING FORCE-WHITE.

There were employed in the public schools for the session 1913-14, 2,237 male and 5,285 female teachers. During the year 1914-15 the corresponding numbers are 2,309 and 5,444. It will be observed that the total number of teachers employed has increased by 231, but that there has been an increase in the number of males by 72 and in the number of female teachers by 159.

We all commend the work of our women teachers and we cannot escape the conviction, that during certain stages in a child's life he needs to be under the influence of female teachers. It is equally as true that the masculine characteristics cannot be possessed by any true woman, and the presence of male teachers is therefore essential. Perhaps the lack of adequate salaries and the opportunities for rumerative employment are operating to decrease the number of male teachers. Certain it is that the schools will not quite do their best work unless such a condition can be remedied.

The total of salaries paid to the white teachers in 1913-14 was $2,962,168; in 1914-15, $3,046,484. The average yearly salaries of teachers for 1914-15 was $444 and $367 for males and females, respectively, a decrease of $2.00 in each case over the corresponding figures for 1913-14.

TEACHERS' CERTIFICATES-WHITE.

The grades of certificates held by 7,604 of the teachers employed in the public schools during the year 1914-15, were as follows:

In 1913-14, 7,317 teachers held certificates, as fol

It will appear from an examination of these figures that there has been no change in the ratio of teachers holding higher grade certificates to those holding lower grade certificates, and this suggests that new emphasis should be placed upon the importance of professional training. As was determined last year from insti tute enrollment cards, 1,200 of our 1,500 beginning teachers in Alabama each year have had no professional training whatever for their work.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES-WHITE.

There were enrolled in our institutes for white teachers this summer 7,837 teachers, of whom 31% were males and 69% were females. Of the teachers enrolled, 7,588 held certificates as follows:

These facts, therefore, indicate a relatively slight falling off in the number of teachers holding higher grades of certificates and a correspondingly slight in

crease in the number of those holding lower grades of certificates. The average length of service of the teachers engaged in elementary schools was 31 months; of those engaged in high schools, 25 months; while the av erage time spent in the last position for all teachers was a trifle more than 13 months. The amount of time the teachers who had only elementary training had spent in school was a little less than 6 years, while the average of those who had some high school training was 2.6 years, and of those who had college training, 2.4 years. The total number of graduates of normal schools employed in the public schools was 545, of whom 63 had completed the work in education at the University of Alabama. 2,548 teachers were members of the Alabama Teachers' Reading Circle, and 1,590 were enrolled in the State Educational Association. A particularly encouraging feature of the institute work has been the impetus given to vocational work in the rural schools. The different types of work attempted by these schools are as follows:

a. For boys: Manual training, agriculture, corn clubs, pig clubs.

b. For girls: Domestic science, domestic art, tomato clubs.

c. For both boys and girls: School gardens.

The following facts were reported:

Number teaching wood work..

Number having wood work equipment at school... 68

153

Number installing domestic science equipment dur

48

ing year

Number installing manual training equipment during year

45

This is only a meager beginning, but it indicates a trend that will go far toward making the school and the community more co-operative. The work of the boys' corn clubs and the girls' tomato clubs is under the direction of the Junior and Home Economics Extension Department of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, under whose excellent leadership numbers of boys are making more than one hundred bushels of corn to the acre at a very low cost, and a goodly number of girls are engaging in the raising of tomatoes, each girl being required to cultivate as much as one-tenth of an acre and to can all the tomatoes raised on her plot. Many housewives are following their example and are canning the frutis and vegetables which usually go to waste on the farm, while many fathers are being given wholesome lessons in improved methods of corn grow. ing.

TEACHING FORCE-NEGRO.

For the session 1913-14, there were employed in the negro schools 686 male teachers and 1,830 female teachers. The corresponding figures for 1914-15 were 670 and 1,880, respectively, there being a slight decrease in the number of male teachers and a slight increase in the number of female teachers, and a total net gain of 34. These teachers received in salaries $402,915, an increase of $1,300 over the preceding year. The average salaries of negro teachers, both male and female, are the same as in the preceding year, namely, $169 and $153, respectively.