| Subjects | Median Cost |
|---|---|
| Shopwork | $93 |
| Normal training | 92 |
| Latin | 71 |
| Commercial | 69 |
| Modern languages | 63 |
| History | 62 |
| Household occupations | 61 |
| Science | 60 |
| Mathematics | 59 |
| English | 51 |
| Agriculture | 48 |
| Music | 23 |
Translating this table into the form of a series of questions which school authorities and communities must face, we may ask: Is it desirable that shopwork be supplied in a school when it costs nearly twice as much as English? Is Latin enough better than modern languages to justify its retention in the program of a school when it costs eight dollars more per unit of instruction?
Like series of facts for the elementary schools can be borrowed from an unpublished study by Mr. G. Lee Fleming of Hibbing, Minnesota, and are reproduced in Table V. Certain selected facts are also exhibited in Fig. 5. The table shows that reading absorbs nearly two thirds of the expenditures of the first grade, while in the third grade the same subject gets a little less than one third of the expenditures, and in the sixth grade about one sixth. Opening exercises require about the same expenditure in all grades. Geography comes into prominence first in the fourth grade. A study of the table will show that financial statements of this type are indexes of academic organization.
TABLE V. THE PORTION OF EACH THOUSAND DOLLARS SPENT FOR INSTRUCTION IN EACH SUBJECT IN EACH OF THE FIRST SIX ELEMENTARY GRADES[24]
| Subjects | First Grade | Second Grade | Third Grade | Fourth Grade | Fifth Grade | Sixth Grade | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | $611 | $407 | $307 | $240 | $150 | $156 | $312 |
| Arithmetic | 5 | 101 | 176 | 187 | 181 | 190 | 140 |
| Language | 95 | 110 | 126 | 130 | 178 | 105 | 124 |
| Music | 86 | 90 | 84 | 67 | 58 | 67 | 75 |
| Spelling | 3 | 92 | 90 | 93 | 80 | 71 | 71 |
| Geography | — | — | 9 | 102 | 124 | 152 | 64 |
| Writing | 49 | 68 | 61 | 61 | 52 | 59 | 58 |
| Drawing | 60 | 80 | 55 | 66 | 32 | 42 | 56 |
| Manual arts | — | — | 23 | 9 | 60 | 76 | 28 |
| Opening exercises | 34 | 21 | 23 | 21 | 24 | 25 | 25 |
| Physical culture | 11 | — | 15 | 14 | 40 | 39 | 20 |
| Folk dancing | 11 | 22 | 25 | — | — | — | 10 |
| Hygiene | — | 3 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 7 |
| Construction work | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | 5 |
| History | — | — | — | — | 10 | 5 | 2 |
| Handwork | 4 | 6 | — | — | — | — | 2 |
| Sense training | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | 1 |
| Total | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 |
Fig. 5. Distribution in the various grades of each thousand dollars expended for instruction
The relative expenditure in six grades of the schools of Hibbing, Minnesota, for four of the chief school subjects is shown by the height of the columns
Costs of Classes of Different Sizes
A second determinant of costs is the size of the class. One of the simplest ways of reducing expenses is to give a single teacher a large number of pupils to care for. In 1916 the superintendent of schools in St. Louis calculated that the reduction of elementary classes in the schools of that city by an average of one pupil per class would cost the city $65,000 per year. Los Angeles and Indianapolis have small elementary classes, the averages being 23.7 and 24.7 members per class respectively. The cost of elementary instruction is very high, being $59.41 and $50.45 respectively. St. Louis and Chicago have much lower costs, namely, $37.21 and $37.58 respectively. These low costs are secured in a very large measure by grouping children in large classes of 37.6 and 40.3 average membership per class.