It is shown in the chapter on State school systems (Ch. I) that the average length of school term in 1912 was 158 days. In one State the schools were open for an average of 92 days and in another 194 days. In five States the term exceeded 180 days. In 26 States the average term fell below 160 days; and in 14 of these States it was below 140. For all the State school systems the average number of days' attendance for every child 5 to 18 years of age was 83.5, varying from 43 days in the State with the lowest average to 112 in the State having the highest.

TABLE 3.-Average number of years' (of 200 days) attendance at public schools for each individual as indicated by the school statistics for the years named.

Should the percentage of enrollment, average attendance, and length of school term computed for 1912 continue for 13 years (the period of school life 5 to 18), the average amount of schooling for each individual in this group would be 1,086 days, or 5.43 years. This is shown in the above table which compares the estimates for 1912 with former years.

If the work of the private schools be estimated in the same way and added to the above, it would bring the average number of days' schooling up to 1,184, 5.92 years of 200 days each, as shown in Table 4.

TABLE 4.-Average number of years' (of 200 days) schooling at any school received by each individual, as indicated by the statistics for the years named.

The approximate number of children in school in each of half a dozen age groups was reported by the Census Office in 1910. Applying the same percentages to the enrollment reported to the Bureau of Education for 1912, a similar age distribution is obtained, as shown in Table 5.

TABLE 5.-Estimated school enrollment by age groups in 1912.

5 to 24 years...

38, 409, 225 20, 278,845

1 Includes enrollment 21 years of age and over.

As already shown in Table 2, the total enrollment of 20,278,440 for 1912 was distributed as follows: 18,583,214 in elementary schools, 1,339,047 in high schools, academies, and preparatory schools, and 356,179 in higher institutions. Using the approximate percentages ascertained for public elementary schools and applying the actual percentages ascertained for secondary or high schools, a fair estimate of the number in each grade may be found.

TABLE 6.-Distribution of school enrollment for 1912 by grades, according to estimated

Assuming that the percentages of grade distribution shown in the above table for the elementary schools have been approximately the same for eight years, it is found that in 1904 the first grade had 3,952,945 pupils, that 2,297,774 reached the fourth grade in 1907, and 1,181,893 enrolled in the eighth grade in 1911, while only 549,009 of the number reached the first year of the high school in 1912. These figures are shown in Table 7.

1903-4...

1904-5..

1905-6.

1906-7.

1907-8.

1908-9..

1909-10.

1910-11.

1911-12.

TABLE 7.-Progress of elementary grade enrollment for eight years.

It is more likely that the first grade had about 25 per cent of the elementary enrollment in 1903-4. It is usually estimated that the beginners make up about half of the first-grade enrollment, while repeaters or retarded pupils comprise the other half. The number of beginners in 1903-4 must have been about 2,100,000, and of these about 26 per cent reached the first year of the high school in 1911-12. Table 8 shows the enrollment of first-year high-school students for four successive years, and the number of graduates for four years later. It appears that about 39 per cent of the students entering the lowest grade of the high school will be found in the graduating class at the end of four years.

TABLE 8.-Elimination of high-school students.

The annual cost of education in the United States is not less than $700,000,000. The expenditures for State common schools, for all public institutions, and for most private institutions of higher education are reported with reasonable accuracy. The cost of private high schools is partly estimated. Estimates are necessary for private elementary schools, commercial schools, private kindergartens, and miscellaneous schools. Table 9 seems to present a fair statement of the cost of education for 1912.

The per capita cost of $53.40 for public high schools is based upon the tabulation of financial returns from 2,642 public high schools in all parts of the country.

Table 10 shows the number of teachers reported to this bureau in 1890, 1900, 1910, and 1912 by the schools and colleges. For private elementary and miscellaneous schools the numbers are partly estimated.

TABLE 10.-Distribution of teachers for four periods.

TABLE 10.-Distribution of teachers for four periods—Continued.

Tables 11 and 12 relate to the public-school systems of the Southern States, where all the schools for negro children are separate from the white schools. Separate accounts of the cost of maintaining white and negro schools are not kept in most of these States. These tables deal with the items of population, enrollment, average attendance, number of teachers, etc. The aggregate expenditure for the public schools in the Southern States was $95,616,998 in 1912, as shown in Table 12.