In the next three divisions the female teachers have increased in greater proportion than the males. The large decrease of teachers in Mississippi is probably one of the results of the re-organization of the school districts of that State, securing fewer and larger schools. In the Western Division, again, the male teachers have gained in proportionate numbers.

The present relative number of teachers of each sex is given in Column 13. The different sections of the country present well-marked distinctions in this matter. In the North Atlantic States only 23 teachers out of every 100 are male; then come the North Central and Western Divisions, in which about one-third of all of the teachers are male: in the two Southern divisions the males are in the majority, in the South Central Division largely so.

Massachusetts has the smallest proportion of male teachers of any State or Territory, or about one in ten. In Arizona and Arkansas the proportion of male teachers is largest, being in each instance more than three-fourths of the whole.

Though no considerable change in the relative number of teachers of each sex has taken place during the year covered by this Report, yet when the last 10 years are taken into account a decided displacement of male teachers is apparent, extending through every section of the country, except in one instance. This displacement will be seen from the following tabular statement:

Percentage of male teachers at intervals of five years since 1876–77, computed from the Reports of the Bureau of Education.

It will be observed that in the North Atlantic Division, where the relative number of male teachers was smallest in 1876-77, the displacement of males has been going on nearly as extensively as in any other section. Whether this process can continue without detriment to the best interests of the schools, especially as regards the education of the older boys, is a question worthy of serious consideration.

Changes in the teaching force.-Column 12 is designed to show the average number of changes in the teaching force to every 100 teachers' positions during the school year. This will be seen to vary exceedingly in the several States reporting the necessary data, so much so as to suggest a greater or less degree of inaccuracy in the reports made. The averages for the North Atlantic, North Central, and Western Divisions, however, are tolerably uniform, being 25.41, 28.60, and 27.15, respectively. The want of permanency in the teachers' position is one of the greatest drawbacks to the progress of the public schools to a higher degree of efficiency. Just to what extent this want of permanency exists can be determined in no better way than the one given, and it would be a matter affording peculiar satisfaction if the data required for the purpose were more accurate and complete.

SALARIES OF TEACHERS.

[Table 10.]

The average monthly salaries of male teachers have increased in 15 States and Territories, and decreased in 17, out of the 32 in which this change can be determined satisfactorily. As regards the salaries of female teachers, there has been an increase in 17 States and Territories, a decrease in 13, and no change in 2.

The greatest difference between the salaries of male and female teachers is met with in the North Atlantic and North Central Divisions; the least, in the South Atlantic Division.

The want of uniformity in the methods of computing the average wages of teachers has already been pointed out in previous Reports of the Office; so long as it continues to exist, no reliable comparisons of the wages of teachers in different States can be made. There is one method that is unqualifiedly incorrect, namely, taking the mean between the maximum and minimum salaries of a county or township as the average salary.

The average salary of all the male or female teachers of a State possesses no great degree of significance. The classification should be more in detail, distinguishing city from country teachers, and white from colored, in order to be useful as a guide in determining the remuneration of teachers.

A consideration of school revenue is chiefly valuable for comparing the relative amounts derived from different sources in the several States.

The value of the results arrived at, however, is considerably vitiated through a want of uniformity in the classification of school revenue. As an instance of this, it may be said that certain revenues of essentially the same character in all the States are classed in some States as income from permanent funds, in others as income from State taxes, and in others still as income from local taxes. Also, taxes imposed by a State law, but retained and distributed in the communities where they were collected, are sometimes reported as State taxes and sometimes as local taxes. These taxes may be called compulsory local taxes, as they differ both from voluntary local taxes and from taxes paid into the State treasury and distributed therefrom on some general basis of population or attendance, which latter are State taxes proper. A more detailed classification would remedy the misunderstanding in this matter, were there any possibility of its being adopted.

State aid to education.-There may be noted a growing sentiment in favor of having more of the school revenues collected and apportioned by the State authorities according to population or attendance (see Index under the head of "Revenue"). The design is to equalize the school funds, so that all parts of a State may have a school term of equal length, or nearer equal than at present.

Ten States and Territories, all situated in the North and West, report no State tax Thatever (Table 11, Column 3). In the North Central Division only 9.8 per cent. of all the school revenue (Table 12 A, Column 3) is raised by State taxes, hardly sufficient to give anything like equal school privileges to all the children in the States composing that division.