Careful tabulations from the census returns show that a school enrollment of 22.4 per cent. of the total population of Missouri amounts to but 88.6 per cent. of the school population of that state, fixing the standard of school age as between six and sixteen years; while a school enrollment of 22 per cent. of the total population of New Jersey is equal to[G] 101.5 per cent. of her school population. Hence, although Missouri has a somewhat larger percentage in school of her total population than has New Jersey, yet she lacks more than 11 per cent. of having all her children of school age enrolled as scholars; while a slightly smaller per cent. of her total population places more than all the school age children of New Jersey in school. So also with Vermont, where a school enrollment of 22 per cent. of the total population gives 109.5 per cent. in school, of all of school age.
Comparing Nebraska and Connecticut, we find that while 22.3 per cent. of the total population of the former state enrolled in the schools amounts to but 95.4 per cent. of her children of school age, 21.3 per cent. of the total population of the latter state enrolled in the schools is equivalent to 110.3 per cent. of her children of school age.
Massachusetts has to send 19.2 per cent. of her total population to school in order to equal 104.8 per cent. of her children of school age, while Illinois has to send to school 24.5 per cent. of her population to reach a like ratio of enrolled scholars to children of school age.
Even in states situated so near to each other as Pennsylvania and New York we observe this inequality. In the former, where the school enrollment is 22.8 per cent. of the total population, it is but 99.4 per cent. of the children of school age, while in New York 23 per cent. of the total population enrolled in the schools is 112.4 per cent. of her children of school age.
Thus far have been selected for comparison some of those states the ratios of whose school enrollment to the total population were about the same. But while these contrasts bring out very clearly the inequality in the burden of educating the children of our country, yet there are more marked illustrations at hand.
Take Arkansas, West Virginia and New York, for instance. In Arkansas the school enrollment is 13.5 per cent. of population, and but 51.3 per cent. of the children of school age. At the same ratio a school enrollment of 23 per cent. of total population in Arkansas would be but 87.4 per cent. of the children of school age. West Virginia has a school enrollment of 23.3 per cent. of total population, which is only 87.9 per cent. of her children of school age. Yet New York, as we have already seen, by an enrollment of 23 per cent. of her total population secures schooling for 113.3 per cent.—more than all—of her children of school age.
Comparing other states, one with the other—such as Alabama with Maine, Georgia with New Hampshire, Tennessee with Rhode Island, Mississippi with Massachusetts, etc.—we see similar, and in some cases even greater inequality.
Let us now apply these facts practically, and thus reach a clearer understanding of the effect of this great disparity.
The actual mean average cost of the schooling of each public school scholar in the United States is about ten dollars. Assuming then that the adult population of each state bears the burden of educating its children, and that all the children of school age in each state are enrolled in the schools—as they should be—let us ascertain how much the tax per capita would be on the adults bearing this burden in each state and territory. In other words, let us discover how much in each state and territory must every adult (male or female) pay every year in order to supply the ten dollars per annum that it costs to educate each and every child in that state or territory.
It would cost each adult in Montana, $1.95; in Wyoming, $2.12; Nevada, $2.12; Colorado, $2.20; Arizona, $2.34; New Hampshire, $2.78; Idaho, $3.00; Massachusetts, $3.23; Dakota, $3.30; Rhode Island, $3.22; California, $3.33; Connecticut, $3.27; Maine, $3.43; Vermont, $3.46; New York, $3.56; District of Columbia, $3.77; Washington, $3.94; New Jersey, $4.02; Michigan, $4.15; Oregon, $4.29; Delaware, $4.31; Pennsylvania, $4.26; Ohio, $4.55; Maryland, $4.55; Nebraska, $4.77; Minnesota, $4.70; New Mexico, $4.65; Wisconsin, $4.86; Illinois, $4.88; Indiana, $5.00; Iowa, $5.10; Missouri, $5.28; Kansas, $5.32; Louisiana, $5.54; North Carolina, $5.67; Virginia, $5.59; Texas, $5.86; Kentucky, $5.65; Florida, $5.78; Utah, $6.07; Alabama, $6.12; Arkansas, $6.12; Georgia, $5.98; South Carolina, $5.98; Tennessee, $6.00; West Virginia, $5.86, and Mississippi, $6.28—while, massing the entire Union, the cost to each adult in it would be $4.70.