TABLE XXXI INEQUALITIES IN EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IN ILLINOIS-VARIATIONS IN 190 185 180 175 170 165 160 155 150 145 140 135 130 125 ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΟ TOTAL 194 189 184 179 174 169 164 159 154 149 144 139 134 129 NUMBER OF DAY SCHOOLS WERE IN SESSION NOTE. The highest for 1920 was 180 to 184 days-Grundy County 184 days; median falls at 158 days, Cass, Christian, and Henry counties; lowest: 135 to 139 days-Wabash, 139 and Wayne, 137 days. See footnote a. NOTE.-The highest for 1922 was 190 to 194 days-Cook County, 192 days; Henderson and Stephenson counties, 190 days; median falls between 169 and 170 days; lowest: 125 to 129 days-Hardin, 127 days. See footnote b. • Illinois School Report, 1919-20, Appendix B, pp. 22-23, Table 5, column 10. Computed. Ibid., 1920-22, Appendix B, rp. 22-23, Table 5, column 10. Computed. A brief but telling picture of the inequalities existing among school districts is presented in a pamphlet issued under the auspices of the Illinois State Teachers Association, entitled, "The Crisis in Public Education in Illinois." This pamphlet contains an account of the conditions in certain districts. How unequal are wealth and the educational facilities provided, is shown by the following extracts:" Just south of Chicago there are two districts, side by side,-District 111, Stickney Township and District 103, Lyons. In one (District III) there are railroad yards, high property values, and few children. In the other (Lyons) there are workers' cottages, low property values, and many children. The assessed valuation of District III is $1,149,912, and there are only 51 children enrolled in the schools. The assessed valuation of Lyons is $890,530, and there are 729 children in the schools. The tax rate in District 111 is 27 cents, and they have plenty of money. The tax rate in Lyons is $2.67 and they have not enough to run their schools. In District III there is $22,548 of taxed property for each child. In Lyons there is $1,222-just one-eighteenth as much. In two other adjoining districts in a different part of the state, the difference is even greater, being $3,800 per child in one district and $85,000 per child in the neighboring one-twenty-four times as much. The principle of a greater degree of state support of the schools is that we tax the wealth of the state wherever it is and use the money to educate the children wherever they are. The same pamphlet, The Crisis in Public Education in Illinois, contains a letter from a public spirited citizen which shows not only that school facilities are entirely inadequate, but asserts that the truancy laws are a farce. The first paragraph of the letter referred to reads as follows: The Legislative Publicity Committee of the Illinois State Teachers' Association, The Crisis in Public Education in Illinois. March, 1921, pp. 14-15. are in a The schools in this end of the county (Macoupin) . . deplorable condition, and unless the state distributive fund is increased sufficient to help us, I can see no hope for the schools in this community. We have children in basements that are injurious to their health and to the health of the teachers. We have children stuck in old buildings that have been condemned by the state fire marshall and which violate the state sanitary laws in every particular. The truancy laws are a farce and we can't enforce them for want of room and you would not know that school was in session, judging by the children that are roaming the street every day." In answer to an inquiry addressed by the author of the present study to Superintendent Carleton W. Washburne, chairman of the committee which prepared the pamphlet from which the extracts just quoted have been taken, Superintendent Washburne, in a letter dated April 4, 1924, wrote: "The conditions represented in this pamphlet have not been remedied to any great degree." INEQUALITIES IN EFFORT We have seen how widely the ten counties selected for special study vary in ability to provide school revenues, i.e., in assessed valuation per teacher employed. In order to determine the extent to which these counties vary as to the effort they put forth to provide good schools, a study was made of the average rate in district tax required to produce the total amount of school revenues raised by district tax by these counties. The average rates here given were determined on the basis of the total assessed valuation of each county and the total amount of school revenue raised by district taxes within each county, the actual rates levied by the individual districts not being obtainable by the author. Upon the basis of this study it was found that Cook County, which has a valuation of $150,450 per teacher, in 1921 levied an average tax rate of 15.9 mills and was able to produce thereby a fund amounting to $2470 per teacher, whereas Logan, the third richest county in the state, having a valuation of slightly less than $107,000 per teacher, levied a local tax of 18 mills, but was able to produce thereby only $1868 per teacher. Even more striking are the inequalities when we compare the richer counties with the poorer. Thus Henderson County, which has a valuation of $112,757 per teacher, levied a tax of 12 mills and produced thereby a fund amounting to $1571 per teacher; whereas Gallatin, the poorest county in the state, levied twice as heavy a tax, namely 24 mills, and was able to produce thereby a fund amounting only to $707 per teacher. Kankakee County, with a valuation of $79,306 per teacher, levied a 16-mill tax, and produced thereby a fund amounting to $1375 per teacher, whereas Pulaski County, which has a valuation of $36,961, levied a tax of 22.4 mills, but was able to produce thereby only $1019. These facts are set forth in Table XXXII, together with other facts showing the inequalities characterizing the present system of state aid. A graphic presentation of these inequalities in ability and effort is given in Figure 4. 8 The Legislative Publicity Committee of the Illinois State Teachers' Association, The Crisis in Public Education in Illinois. March, 1921, pp. 14-15. TABLE XXXII INEQUALITIES IN ABILITY, EFFORT, AND AID IN ILLINOIS COUNTIES, 1921 ASSESSED VALUA- a Counties selected on the basis of assessed valuation per teacher, as follows: the three richest, the middle four, and the three poorest. All ranks given in this table refer to rank in present group of ten counties. b Does not include income from township, sixteenth section fund. e Amount of tax levied taken from Illinois School Report, 1919-20, Appendix B, p. 53, Table 14, column 5. d Equalizing Educational Opportunity in Illinois. Report from the State Senate, Secretary's Office, Springfield, Illinois, p. 1. ⚫ Computed. Statistical Report of the Illinois Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1921, p. 52, Table 14, column 5; Third Annual Statistical Report of the Illinois Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1921, p. 56, Table 16, column 5; p. 28, Table 7, & Computed. Ibid., p. 72, Table 20, column 5; p. 28, Table 7, column 7. h Computed. Ibid., p. 60, Table 17, column 8; p. 28, Table 7, column 7. Does not include capital outlay or bonded debt. Of all the bases employed in the United States today in apportioning school moneys, none is more ineffective, unfair, unscientific, and disastrous than the Illinois basis of minor population. Illinois distributes her state moneys among the counties of the state upon the basis of the number of persons under 21 years of age. A moment's consideration will show that the age employed in such a method of distribution is a fictitious school age. A considerable proportion of the minor population in any county or district does not attend school at all. The minor population basis results in giving certain districts aid for large numbers of children for whose education the districts are spending nothing. Furthermore, it discriminates against the poor rural district with a small school population and favors the unduly rich and populous district. Worse still, it not only furnishes no incentive to a district to see that all children of school age are in school, but it actually in some cases puts a premium on discouraging children from attending school. INEQUALITIES IN STATE AID AND EFFORT AMONG TEN ILLINOIS COUNTIES,1921. RESULTS OF APPORTIONING |