GROWTH OF THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM.

The following tables exhibit to some extent the progress of the common schools of the United States since 1870:

LENGTH OF SCHOOL TERM.

Average number of days the common schools were actually kept.

The total school expenditure compared with the total population and with

Year.

attendance.

the average

GENERAL SUMMARY OF PUPILS ENROLLED IN SCHOOLS OF ALL GRADES DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR 1890-'91.

The following table (pp. 43-44) shows the whole number of pupils of each grade enrolled in the public and private schools of the United States during the school year 1890-'91.*

According to the table there were enrolled a grand total of 14,669,069 pupils, being 23.09 per cent of the population, or nearly one-fourth.

Grade of pupils.-Of the total number of pupils, 14,146,663, or 96.4 per cent, were receiving elementary instruction (primary and grammar grades); 370,435, or 2.6 per cent, were receiving secondary instruction. (high school grade); and 151,971, or 1.0 per cent, were receiving higher instruction.

The following table shows more in detail the proportion of pupils in each grade.

Only 1 pupil in every 40 is under secondary instruction and 1 in 97 under higher instruction; 964 out of every 1,000 pupils are below the high school. This emphasizes the fact that the great multitude of children receive in the elementary schools all the school education they ever get..

The greatest proportion of secondary and higher students is found. in the North. In the North Atlantic States 3.2 per cent of the whole enrollment, or 1 in 31, are under secondary instruction; in the South Central States only 1.6 per cent, or 1 in 63, about one-half the proportion of the former group.

The North Atlantic States also lead in the higher instruction, having 1.4 per cent of the total enrollment, or 1 in 73, under higher instruction; the South Central and Pacific States have 0.8 per cent under higher instruction, or about 1 in 130 of the whole number of pupils.

The figures of secondary and higher instruction have been made up from the reports of individual institutions (high schools, private secondary schools, colleges, etc.) to the Bureau; the students in these schools have been carefully classified, all the strictly elementary pu

*Excluding evening schools; art, industrial training, trades, and private business schools; schools for the defective, dependent, and delinquent classes, and Indian schools. These collectively enroll a considerable number of pupils.

pils being so classed, and those in the preparatory departments of colleges being classed as secondary. It is probable that the number of secondary pupils is considerably understated, especially in public schools; there are many pupils pursuing secondary studies in ungraded or partially graded public schools who were not reached by the Bureau.

Per cent of public and private pupils.-Public schools and institutions enrolled 13,023,406 pupils in 1890-'91, or 88.8 per cent of the total enrollment; private schools and institutions enrolled 1,645,663, or 11.2 per cent of the total.

Eight-ninths of all the education in the United States is therefore public. The following table gives the proportion of public and private, classified by grade and locality:

Per cent of pupils in each grade attending public and private schools.

Elementary.

Secondary.

Higher.

All grades.

Public. Private. Public. Private. Public. Private. Public. Private.

It will be seen that about nine-tenths of all elementary education is public, six-tenths of secondary education, and only three-tenths of higher education. The higher the grade, therefore, the more completely is education confined to private enterprise.

In the elementary grade, the largest proportion of private pupils is found in the North Atlantie States; more than one-seventh (15.1 per cent) of all the elementary pupils in that section are in private schools, about double the proportion that is found elsewhere. It is proper to state, however, that the statistics of private elementary education are very incomplete and fragmentary, even in those States that have made the greatest effort to gather information on this subject.

Of secondary pupils, the South has the largest proportion of private, i. e., about two-thirds. This is an outgrowth or survival of ante-bellum conditions, when nearly all secondary education in the South was conducted in private schools. In the North Central States, on the other hand, where the establishment of public high schools was a part of the settled educational policy from the beginning, less than threetenths (29.4 per cent) of the secondary education is given in private schools.

In the South, also, the largest proportion of private higher education is found, only about one-fifth there of the higher education being given in public schools and institutions. In the States and Territories of the

western division, on the contrary, over one-half (51.7 per cent) of the higher education is public.

It must be stated that there is no well-defined line separating public from private higher institutions. In some of the institutions considered as public the State merely gives some pecuniary aid, perhaps with a representation on the governing board.

A large part of the public higher education is given in normal schools, as will be seen from the detailed table. Deducting these there remain in other professional schools (law, medicine, technology, etc.) and in colleges of the liberal arts the following proportion of public and private students:

Without counting in normal education, then, which is peculiarly a State interest, only 13 per cent, or about one-eighth, of the higher edu cation is given in public institutions. In the North Atlantic States the proportion is particularly small, being only 6 per cent, and even this might be reduced by a more rigid classification.

Actual relation of school enrollment to population.-The percentage columns of the following table give the proportion of the population enrolled in schools of different kinds.

Elementary schools enrolled 22.27 per cent of the population, or about 1 person in 44; secondary schools, 0.58 per cent, or 1 in 171; higher instituticus, 0.24 per cent, or 1 in 418.