family budget expresses her valuations of the various necessities, luxuries, and frivolities of existence by the proportion of her budget that she devotes to each. The housewife is not seldom charged with large responsibility for

CHART III.-Equivalent educational values in the Newton High School as shown by the purchasing power of a dollar expended for class instruction.

the high cost of living, on account of her lack of wisdom in handling the family budget; I gravely doubt that we educational administrators show any greater wisdom than the average housewife in the disposition of our always limited school budgets.

Unquestionably the first step toward improvement, both for the housewife and for the school administrator, is to secure definite, detailed, and significant knowledge of the actual disposition of the budget, whether

CHART IV.-Equivalent educational values in the Newton Technical High School as shown by the purchasing power of a dollar expended for class instruction.

of the family or of the school. Chart Number 6 shows the apportionment of every dollar now being expended for instruction in the Newton secondaryschool system. Of every dollar so expended, o. 3 of one cent goes for Greek, while 15.6 cents goes for English. We buy 0.4 of one cent's worth of

instruction in vocal music while buying 12.1 cents' worth of instruction in mathematics. We think it best-or are we doing it without thinking ?-to buy 7 cents' worth of French for every 3 cents' worth of German; and we

CHART V.-Equivalent educational values in the Newton Vocational School as shown by the purchasing power of a dollar expended for class instruction.

are buying no Spanish at all. We are spending 5.1 cents for instruction in the household arts-in the preparation of girls for homemaking-to 6.1 cents for instruction in commercial branches-in the preparation of girls and boys for clerical and business service.

Charts Numbers 7, 8, and 9 show the apportionment of every dollar expended for instruction in the Newton High, the Newton Technical, and the Newton Vocational schools respectively.

CHART VI.-Relative valuation of different subjects in the Newton secondary schools as shown in the apportionment of every dollar expended for instruction.

Comparison of the costs of the same unit under different conditions is perhaps the best starting-point for a campaign to reduce unit costs or to improve the quality of units of service. To be of any practical value, such

comparisons must be made of costs arising under conditions that can be thoroly studied. Of what earthly use are our interminable comparisons of teachers' salaries and annual expenditures per pupil from one end of the

CHART VII.-Relative valuation of different subjects in the Newton High School as shown in the apportionment of every dollar expended for instruction.

country to the other, when we know nothing, when we attempt to find out nothing, when it might be practically impossible if we tried to get adequate knowledge, concerning the quantity and quality of teaching service rendered for which varying salaries are paid, and the amount and character of instruction given on which per pupil costs are based?