IV. State Educational Needs and Illiteracy.. The States and the Problem of Illiteracy. The States and the Problem of Illiteracy Among the Native-Born. Chart I.-National Income, Public School, and Governmental Expenditures.. Chart II.-Percentage of National Income Expended for Schools.... Table 6.-The States, Per Capita Expenditures for Education and Per Capita Wealth.. Table 7.-State Incomes, Taxes Paid and Expenditures for Education.... Table 12.—The States and the Problem Among the Foreign-Born White Population.. Table 13.-The States and the Problem of the Illiterate Immigrant. Table 14.-The States and Non-English Speaking White Population. Table 18.-The States and Inequality of Educational Opportunity as Indicated by Illiteracy Among the Native-Whites in Rural and Urban Communities. . . . . . Table 23.—The States and the Problem of Illiteracy Among the Native-Born...... Table 24.-The States and the Problem of Native-White Illiteracy. Wealth, Educational Expenditures and Productivity The outstanding educational problem at present is that of obtaining adequate financial support for the public schools. Education must compete with other governmental functions in obtaining its financial support, and all governmental expenditures must come out of the national income. Therefore the cost of education may best be studied when accompanied by figures both as to cost of other governmental functions and as to the amount of the national income. Table 1 gives the figures for national income, total governmental expenditures, and public school expenditures for each year from 1913 to 1921. The figures are represented graphically in Charts I and II, pages 8 and 10. The effect of the war was to increase all governmental expenditures, especially those of the Federal government, which was charged with the cost of maintaining our armed forces. Governmental expenditures grew more rapidly than national income and as a consequence there was an increase in the percentage of the national income spent by the government. In 1913, 9.24 per cent of the national income was spent for all governmental purposes; federal state and local; in 1921 this per cent was 16.73. The figures in Column 2, from 1913 to 1919 inclusive, are those issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research in its publication Income in the United States, Mitchell, King et al. The figures for 1920 and 1921 are tentative estimates based upon the advice of reliable authorities. The figures in Column 3 are taken from Taxation and National Income, Research Report No. 55, page 14, issued by the National Industrial Conference Board, New York City. They represent governmental expenditures for all purposes; federal, state, and local, including education. The figures in Column 4, except those for 1919 and 1921, are taken from Statistics of State School Systems, 1919-20, Bulletin, 1922, No. 29, page 5, issued by the United States Bureau of Education. Those for 1919 and 1921 are independently estimated. They represent expenditures for all public elementary and secondary schools by school years; the expenditures given for 1913 being for the school year 1912-13, etc. IT IS gratifying to know that in a time when public burdens have lain very heavy upon the people there has been everywhere a determined purpose to maintain education unimpaired, in order that the coming generation may be equipped, regardless of sacrifices in the present, for the increasing responsibilities which it must bear.. Only through a properly motivated and generously inspired process of education can this be accomplished.—President Harding, School Life, Dec. 1922, page 73. CHART I.—NATIONAL INCOME, PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPENDITURES AND EXPENDITURES FOR ALL OTHER GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTIONS Chart I is based upon the figures given in table 1. The first bar, for 1913, shows that the total National income in this year was $34,400,000,000. The black portion of this bar represents the amount expended for public schools the same year-$521,546,000. The shaded portion of the bar shows the amount expended for all governmental purposes, Federal, State, and local, excluding public school costs. The black and shaded portion of the bar together represent the total governmental expenditures for 1913-$3,179,559,000. The other bars similarly represent the situation for the years indicated. |