Statistics.—Details as to education in each state of the American Union are given in the articles under state headings. But a more comprehensive view may be obtained here from the general statistics. The introduction to the statistical tables in vol. ii. of the Commissioner of Education’s Report for 1907 may usefully be quoted. Mr Edward L. Thorndike, of the Teachers’ College, Columbia University, there summarizes the national account as follows:—
“We use in formal school education a material plant valued at from twelve to thirteen hundred million dollars, the labour of 550,000 teachers or other educational officers, and more or less of the time of some eighteen million students.... We pay for the labour of these teachers, many of whom work for only part of the normal city-school year, about $300,000,000. We pay for fuel, light, janitorial services, repairs, depreciation of books, school supplies, insurance and the like, about $90,000,000. For depreciation of the plant not so charged we should properly provide during the year a sinking fund of perhaps $25,000,000. Adding an interest charge of 5% on the investment in the plant, our annual bill for formal school education comes to over $475,000,000. Additions to the plant were made [in 1906-1907] to the extent of from ninety to a hundred million dollars. As a partial estimate of the returns from this investment we may take the number of students whose education has been carried to a specified standard of accomplishment and power. Thus I estimate that, in 1907, 3000 students reached the standard denoted by three years or more of academic, technical or professional study in advance of a reputable college degree; that 25,000 students reached the standard denoted by at least three and not over four years of such study in advance of a four-year high-school course; than an eighth of a million students reached the standard denoted by at least three and not over four years of study in advance of an eight-year elementary-school course; and that three-quarters of a million students reached the standard of completion of an elementary-school course of seven or eight years or its equivalent.... Roughly, nine-tenths of elementary education and the education of teachers, over two-thirds of secondary education, and over a third of college and higher technical education are provided and controlled by the public. Professional education, other than the training of teachers and engineers, is still largely a function of private provision and control.
“The following rough comparison may serve to define further the status of education in the country at large. The plant used for formal education is valued at 1% of our entire national wealth, or twice the value of our telephone systems, or ten times the value of our Pullman and private cars, or one-tenth the value of our railroads. The number of teachers is approximately that of the clergymen, engineers, lawyers and physicians together, five times that of the regular army and navy, and about twice that of the saloon-keepers and bar-tenders and their assistants. The annual expenditure for education, exclusive of additions to the plant, is somewhat over twice the expenditure for the war and navy departments of the national government. It is three and a half times the expenditure of the national government in 1907 for pensions. It is about one and a fourth times the cost (New York wholesale prices) of the sugar and coffee we consume annually.”
The above comparison indicates perhaps, not inadequately, the “business” conception of the value of education prevailing in the United States, where its practical advantages are realized as in no other country, not even Germany.
From the same report the following statistics may be cited for 1906-1907.
Common Schools (including Elementary and Secondary Public Schools only).
| Total number of pupils of all ages | 16,820,386[5] |
| Average number of days schools open | 151.2 |
| Average number of days attended by each pupil | 106.2 |
| Number of male teachers | 105,773 |
| Number of female teachers | 369,465 |
| Number of school houses | 259,115 |
| Average monthly wage of male teachers | $56.10 |
| Average monthly wage of female teachers | $43.67 |
| Value of all school property | $843,309,410 |
| Income from permanent funds and rents | $16,579,551 |
| Income from State taxes | $46,281,501 |
| Income from local taxes | $230,424,554 |
| Income from other sources | $50,317,132 |
| Expenditure on sites, buildings, furniture, libraries and apparatus | $65,817,870 |
| Expenditure on salaries | $196,980,919 |
| Expenditure on other purposes | $67,882,012 |
| Expenditure per head of population | $3.90 |
| Expenditure per pupil | $27.98 |
The Bureau of Education in 1907 received reports from 606 universities, colleges and technological schools; they had a teaching force of 24,679, and an enrolment of 293,343 students. The number of public and private normal schools reporting was 259, with an enrolment of 70,439 students in the regular training courses for teachers, 12,541 graduates and 3660 instructors. There were 148 manual and industrial training schools (independently of the manual training taught in the public schools and in 66 Indian schools), with 1692 teachers and an enrolment of 68,427 students; and 445 independent commercial and business schools, with 2856 instructors and 137,364 students.
(X.)