10

FINANCES.

Amount paid for teachers' salaries..................$205,069 26

Text Books, Rent, Ground Rent, Repairs, Fuel

and Incidentals. ..................................... 88,832 78

Total cost of Schools.................................... 293,902 04

Average cost of each School........................... 3,342 06

Average annual Salary of each teacher including
High Schools........................................... 498 95

Cost for ten months of each different pupil en-
rolled..................................................... 10 10

Cost for ten mouths of each average pupil......... 16 11

From this Summary, taken together with the State and
County tables, a complete and accurate knowledge can be
obtained not only of the extent, but of the detail of School
work for each term, and for the whole year, in each Com-
missioner District and through the entire State. The figures
ought to be studied closely by those who have to legislate for
Schools, that they may comprehend the magnitude of the in-
terests to be guarded and the resources needed.

Here the subject might be left, for no words can give em-
phasis to these figures or prove more conclusively than they
what has been accomplished and what remains to be done.

Two facts must be apparent to every person who studies
these statistics, 1st, that large results have been secured by
very small means, the cost of instruction for each different
child including all incidental expenses for fuel, repairs to
furniture and slight repairs to houses, being only six dollars
for the 9 1-10 school months or 66 cts. per month; 2d, that
the salaries of teachers are not sufficient for their laborious
work, nor liberal enough to secure that high order of teaching
talent which is desirable and must he had, if the schools are
to be made equal to the wishes of all classes of citizens.
Though the administration of the schools has been economi-
cal, it is not commended solely on that account, for cheap
schools are often the dearest; neither ought we to claim credit
for the self-denying labor of the teachers, nor because money
has been saved by depriving the schools of teaching facilities
and apparatus, such as Blackboards, Maps and Charts for
Object Lessons, and a few valuable books of reference for the
teacher's desk.

The estimated revenue for the current school year will not
be less than that of the last. Schools will therefore be open
the same average period and teachers receive no addition to
their salaries.

What the resources of next year will be, the General As-
sembly will determine. On this subject certain suggestions
are made, based upon estimates of the whole wants of the
Schools, including expenses of every kind, except building