A letter from Florida reports that in 1877 there were 30,406 pupils in the public schools—about 4,000 over the number reported the previous year. There is an improvement also in the quality of teachers, in the average length of school terms, and in the interest taken by the people.
Few well-graded and well-taught schools are to be found in Alabama. The number of children of school age, in 1877, was 369,447; the number enrolled in the public schools, 141,230, about three-fifths of whom were white. The school expenditures for teachers and superintendents were $384,993.
In Mississippi, the Superintendent regards the situation as hopeful and encouraging. The statistics are very imperfect, as only sixty-five of the seventy-five counties made any report. These give 160,528 as the number of children in school, and $481,251 as the amount of money expended. The enumeration of persons of school age, giving the number of 324,989, is said to “fall far short of the actual number.”
In Louisiana there has been a period of careful re-organization of the public school system, rather than of marked success in achieving decided results in the educational work of the State. The loss of the interest on the trust fund for the year, by an unconstitutional act of the Legislature, and the failure to collect much over half of the $500,000 appropriated by the State, proved very prejudicial to the country districts, where the number of colored children required a much larger number of schools. In the parishes reported, the aggregate attendance of white children was 16,042, and of colored children, 17,511. There are about 20,000 more colored than white children in the State.
The Secretary of the Board of Education of Texas, writing July 30, after saying that the reports giving the statistics of the schools the present year have not yet been received, adds: “Under our present law, our schools have prospered as they never have before.”
Arkansas has provided for 237 Normal beneficiaries, who are entitled to four years’ free tuition. There were last year twenty Normal students in the collegiate course, and thirty-one in the preparatory school. At Pine Bluff there is a branch Normal college for colored teachers, arranged on nearly the same plan, and entitled to the same number of beneficiaries.
The school population of Tennessee, in 1877, was 442,458; 111,523 being colored. The enrolment was 227,643—43,043 being colored; an increase of 33,463 over the enrolment of the previous year. The schools have improved as much in the quality of the instruction given as in the attendance. The amount of school money during the year was $718,423, which is $120,311 less than that of the year preceding. Notwithstanding this diminution of funds, the number of schools was increased by 807, and that of teachers by 791.
West Virginia is one of the least fluctuating of the Southern States in regard to education, and its history is that of a slow but steady growth. The number of persons of school age, or from six to twenty-one years, for the year 1877, was 192,606, being an increase over the previous year of 7,810. Of these, 125,332 actually attended school, being a numerical increase of attendance of 1,828 over the preceding year, and an increase in the average daily attendance of 11,191. There was an increase, also, of 161 in the number of teachers employed. The total value of school property in the State is $1,714,600, being an increase on the preceding year of $54,132. The total expenditure for the year was $921,307, being a decrease of $65,270, caused mainly by a reduction in the rate of teachers’ salaries, and in the number of school-houses built during the year.
During the past year, the income of the fund was distributed as follows: Virginia, $15,350; North Carolina, $4,500; South Carolina, $3,600; Georgia, $6,000; Florida, $3,900; Alabama, $1,100; Texas, $8,550; Mississippi, $600; Louisiana, $8,000; Arkansas, $6,000; Tennessee, $14,600; West Virginia, $5,050.