Appropriations by the legislatures are usually made in lump sums.[580] In the case of the semi-public institutions the allowances are upon a per capita basis, being from $260 to $357, but more often near $300. In a few of the state schools appropriations are also based upon the number of pupils, as in Alabama with $230 a year for each pupil, in Kentucky with $150 a year, and in Iowa with $35 a quarter, the last two states having additional annual grants. In the states in which pupils are sent to schools outside, a sum of from $200 to $300 is allowed for each pupil thus provided for. In a few cases funds are received from a special tax assessment levied for the benefit of the school, as in Colorado with a one-fifth mill tax on the assessed property valuation of the state,[581] and in North Dakota with six per cent of one mill.
Cost to the State for Each Pupil
The average cost for the support of the pupils in the institutions for the year 1912-1913 was $277.23.[582] In few of the schools does the cost go as low as $200, while in a number it is between $300 and $400. The cost per pupil in the day schools averages, where known, $120.60;[583] and in the private schools, where known, $225.33.[584] For pupils in the common schools of the country, the average cost is $31.65.[585] Thus it costs the state eight times as much to educate its deaf children in institutions as it does its hearing children in the regular public schools, and four times as much to educate them in day schools.
The education of the deaf, then, is not an inexpensive undertaking on the part of the state. Because of the special arrangements necessary for its accomplishment, it comes high, compared with the cost of education in general. But considered merely as an investment, the outlay for this instruction bears returns of a character surpassed in few other fields of the state's endeavor.
FOOTNOTES:
[570] The figures in this chapter are for the most part from Annals for January, 1914 (lix., pp. 26, 27), usually for the latest fiscal year, these being supplemented in a few cases from the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1912 (ii., ch. xiii.). In the institutions where there are departments both for the deaf and the blind, we have ascertained the proportionate part for the deaf of the entire institution. If no allowance is made for the blind in these, the worth of all is $17,751,186, and the amount of property for each pupil $1,492. For 1911-1912 the value of all was $16,454,798, or according to the Report of the Commissioner of Education, $16,387,726. In this Report the value of scientific apparatus, furniture, etc., is stated to be $918,053.
[571] In most cases, as we have seen, the day schools are housed in public school buildings, special establishments being provided only in a few large cities. In the Report of the Commissioner of Education, the property value of four day schools, two being large ones, is put at $250,055, or $525 for each pupil; and if this be accepted as a measure, the property value of all the day schools is $1,019,550. The property value of seven denominational and private schools is likewise given as $324,717, or $1,358 for each pupil; and if this is taken as a measure, the property value of all is $865,404.
[572] In 1910-1911 this was $503,323, and in 1911-1912, $772,245. If allowance be made for the dual schools, it is about ten per cent less. In the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education it is placed at $568,136 for 1911-1912.
[573] With no allowance for the dual schools, this is $3,423,126. In the Report of the Commissioner of Education it is $3,285,099, for all but six institutions.