Public schools of the United States-enrollment, average attendance, and length of term.... 1163 Amount of schooling received by each individual-public school income and expenditure.... 1165 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., December 1, 1904. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the Annual Report of this Office for the year ending June 30, 1903. The enrollment in schools and colleges, public and private, during the year 1902-3 was 17,539,478, the same being an increase of 79,478 pupils over the previous year. Of this number there were enrolled in public institutions supported by taxation and funds belonging to States and municipalities 16,127,739 pupils as against 16,041,016, the number reported for the previous year. Besides the enrollment in schools and colleges, as given above, there were pupils enrolled in special institutions more or less educational in their character, and more or less of a practical business character, as follows: Enrollment in special schools in the United States in 1902-3. Orphan asylums and other benevolent institutions (estimated) Miscellaneous (including schools of music, oratory, elocution, cookery, and various special arts) (estimated) . Total for United States. Adding the enrollment of these special schools (648,440) to the total of schools giving general education, we have a grand total of 18,187,918. TABLE I.-Common school statistics of the United States. 800, 719, 970 1,098, 232, 725 1, 480, 466, 644 1,477, 016, 244 1, 534, 822, 633 1, 539, 576, 527 1, 594, 738, 835 1, 627, 405,037 General items of statistics for the country as a whole may be seen in the table preceding (Table 1). In it is given a comparative summary of items of attendance of pupils, number of teachers, receipts and expenditures, showing the increase from decade to decade for more than thirty years in what are called the common schools, including under this designation schools of the elementary and secondary grades supported from public funds. The per cent of the total population enrolled in the common schools the past year is 20.04, the same being not quite 71 per cent of the entire number of persons from 5 to 18 years of age. The average number in daily attendance during the sessions of the schools has risen from about 4 millions in 1869-70 to something over 11 millions in the past year. The attendance has increased in regularity during the past thirty years; that is to say, the number in average attendance has approximated more closely to the number enrolled. In 1869-70 the average attendance was only 59.3 per cent, while the past year it has been 69.2 per cent. As I have pointed out in my previous reports, the increase in average attendance and the increase in the length of the school term. is due to the growth of villages and cities. A continually growing quota of the population lives in large villages and cities, and holds its schools open for a larger number of days each year. On page 1168 of this Report a copy of one of the wall charts in the exhibit of the Bureau of Education at the world's fair in St. Louis presents the relation between the city population and the rural population, and the relative per cent of school enrollment and attendance in the two regions. The population in the cities is 33 per cent of the whole, while the country population is 67 per cent. The school enrollment in the country, however, amounts to 74 per cent of the whole enrollment; but the rural schools have very short sessions, running from 50 days up to 70 or 80 days in sparsely settled districts. The existence of a railroad in a rural district builds up villages about the railway stations; the village school holds a school session from 140 to 200 days in the year, and thus raises the average of the length of the school session in the rural district. The past year showed a remarkable increase in the length of the school term. While in 1880 the schools were in session for only 130.3 days, the past year they were in session for 147.2 days, while each pupil enrolled attended on an average nearly 102 days. The normal length of the school session in villages and cities is 9 or 10 months of 20 days each, vacation days being excluded; but public holidays that fall within the school year, for example, Washington's Birthday and Memorial Day, are included in the school year, which amounts in cities to 200 days and in the majority of villages to 180 days. |