Average monthly salary paid to male teachers Increase.... Average monthly salary paid to female teachers.......... Number of Trustees appointed by County Superintendents. Number of Trustees appointed by County Superintendents in 1873.......... Amount of salaries paid County Superintendents........... Districts having suitable accommodations for all pupils who may wish to attend school ... Districts not having suitable accommodations for all pupils Districts whose schools are provided with water-closets....... ................. ratus...... Districts whose schools are poorly supplied with apparatus. Number of schools for colored children........ .. Decrease....... Number of pupils attending schools for colored children....... Number of pupils attending schools for colored children in 1873......... Decrease........ 75 Number of school visits made by County Superintendents.. Number of school visits made by County Superintendents in 1873...... Received from city and district taxes.... 235,821 09 315,682 66 Received from miscellaneous sources (sale of bonds, rents, etc.) Percentage of School Funds from State apportionments..... Increase since 1873, in receipts from State apportionments, In receipts from miscellaneous sources.............................. .................................................... Decrease since 1873, in receipts from county apportion- In receipts from city and district taxes........................................................................ Amount of State apportionments per census child...... Increase. Amount of county apportionments per census child.... (b.) Expenditures for School Purposes. Amount paid for teachers' salaries..... Amount paid for rent, repairs, fuel, and contingent ex Percentage of current expenses paid for teachers' salaries... Percentage of current expenses paid for school libraries..... Increase since 1873 in amount paid for teachers' salaries..... In amount paid for libraries. In amount paid for school apparatus..... In total current expenses.... In expenditures for sites, buildings, and school furniture.... Cost of tuition per scholar enrolled in public schools dur- ............. Cost of tuition per scholar in average attendance....... $2,111,155 33 $2,658,241 34 Since the school year, ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, no greater progress has been made in popular education in California than during the school year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five. From July first, eighteen hundred and sixty. six, to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, for the first time in the history of the State, every public school was made entirely free for every child; and an important transition was thereby marked in popular edu cation. But, though every public school was made free, the ways and means provided for the public schools, and the manner of apportioning these means to the different districts, were for years such that only in the centers of wealth and population the children had sufficient facilities for obtaining a good common school education, whilst in all other sections of the State the school system was but a pretense for popular education. The system went further, for in some cases it even thrust districts from without its pale. Hundreds of districts did not receive sufficient funds to maintain in every year the three months' school guaranteed by the Constitution to every district of the State. Up to Ju ae thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, districts whose number of census children fell below a certain figure-twenty for some counties, up to as high as thirty for others did not receive for any one school year sufficient funds to maintain a three months' school for that year. Thanks to the last Legislature, however, for the school year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, and for the first time in the history of this State, every district received sufficient funds for not only a three months' school, but for at least a six months' school. The progress thereby made in popular education can hardly be over estimated. Short school terms-which, until last year, have been the rule and not the exception in a majority of the districts of the Stateplace within the reach of our children only such fragmentary bites of instruction which are only a little better than none at all. Every system of popular education which does not insure to every district of the State at least an eight months' school every year, is but a sham. Long school terms are the sine qua non without which it is impossible to give our children the full measure of the amount and quality of education needed by them. Happily, the wise action of the last Legislature has secured to our schools this first factor in every successful system of popular education. The results of this action are patent. In eighteen hundred and seventy-three, only 43.3 per cent of all the districts maintained an eight months' school; in eighteen hundred and seventy-five, this percentage is raised to 49.53; in eighteen hundred and seventy-two, over four hundred and sixty four districts, or 31.74 per cent did not keep a six months' school; in eighteen hundred and seventy-five, the number has diminished to 34, or 2.15 per cent of all the districts in the State. In other words, all but thirty-four districts maintained at least a six months' school. This unprecedented advance in the popular education of our State is due to two causes: First, the munificence of the last Legislature in more than quadrupling the amount of school money to be raised by State tax; and, second, the change made in the manner of apportioning the School Fund among the districts. This I shall now consider. THE NEW METHOD OF APPORTIONING SCHOOL MONEY. In my last report I pointed out that the time-honored method of ap portioning school moneys pro rata, according to the number of census children, must always discriminate most unjustly against the thinly populated districts of the State. In bringing this matter to the attention of the Legislature, I used the following language: "The law [in 1873] is faulty, not so much primarily, by not providing sufficient funds, as by not providing for an equitable apportioning of the funds. At present the State and county school funds are apportioned to the school districts, not in proportion to the needs of each district, but in proportion to the number of census children. The number of census children belonging to a district determines the amount of funds apportioned to the district; but, within a certain limit, the number of census children does not determine the expenses of maintaining a public school. Thus one district may have fifteen census children, another fifty; still the same amount is needed by each district to maintain a school for a definite length of time. Yet the former district may |