 |
Public Schools in St. Louis
Debow's Review, March 1855
The public system has not only the advantage in general efficiency, but also in economy. In our primary schools, the average annual cost of educating one pupil is about $5; in private schools it averages $36; in our grammar schools the average annual cost is about $12.75; in private schools, for the same studies, the average is $60; in our high schools the average annual cost of educating a pupil is about $30; in private schools the same studies average $90. The average annual cost per pupil in all the public schools for the year just closed was $10.32; in private schools the average is $50 per head. " This shows a difference of five to one in favor of the public school system. Estimating the number of persons of educable age in the city of St. Louis at 23,000, these, at $50 per head, if educated in private schools, would cost $,150,000 per annum; but if educated in public schools, the same would only cost $237,360; showing a saving of $912,640 annually. There are many other points presenting social, moral, and political aspects, in which the public and private systems of educating may be contrasted, in which the advantages are just overwhelmingly in favor of the public system; but space forbids enlargement upon them. I therefore merely indicate them, and commend them to the politician, philanthropist and Christian, as worthy of their most serious consideration and prompt action. "Comparative cost with other cities.-There are not sufficient data at hand for me to institute a strict comparison between the cost of education in St. Louis and that of other cities. Last year, the total amount expended for support of schools in St. Louis was $28,800 70, including salary of counselor, special taxes, &c., incidental expenses to the board as landed proprietor. I estimate these incidental expenditures to amount to at least $2,000 per annum. If these be deducted, the amount of expenditures of schools will only be $36,800, and the number of daily attendance being 3,791 pupils, the cost of education per head was only about $9 75. There is accommodation for about 4,100 pupils in the schools, and if all the schools had been full the expense would not have been greater. This, then, would show that children can be educated in the public schools for about $9 per head per annum. It must also be borne in mind that officers' salaries and various other expenditures, the amount paid for 4,000 pupils is as great as it would be for 10,000 or 15,000. The present cost of education in St. Louis may be then assumed to be as high as it ever will be; even under a system of more liberal salaries, which the board will be compelled to adopt, nolens volens. I take the following statements of comparative cost of tuition from the last annual report of the board of education of the city of New York, presuming them to be correct: New York, annual cost per pupil, $6.86; Philadelphia, $1.11; Boston, $14.35; Baltimore, $12.30; average in twenty-five of the largest cities in the Union, $9.04. I have not had time to verify these amounts, where I have the data, neither do I know whether the New York estimate includes the expenses of the free academy, nor that of Philadelphia that of its high schools, nor how these estimates are made up; but it will be seen, that the cost of tuition in St. Louis compares favorably with the cost elsewhere, when it is considered that the cost of living is higher here than in the eastern cities. I again call attention to the fact, that the expense of public tuition is greater per head in proportion as the number is small. In the year 1851, when the number of pupils in the schools was about 2,100, when there was no high school, when the superintendent's salary was only $1,000 per annum, when the salaries of teachers were on an average fifteen per cent. lower than now, I presented in the annual fiscal report a cost of tuition per pupil, and the expense, as then shown, was $10 49 per head per annum. Now the superintendent's salary has been increased fifty per cent.; some of the teacher's salaries forty per cent.; and a high school established; yet the annual expense of tuition has actually receded. If things had remained the same, the actual recession of tuition would have been at least twenty per cent. From these facts I conclude, that when our school system is fully organized and in operation, with high schools for the accommodation of all who wish to take the higher course of studies, and with liberal salaries, so as to secure the best educational talent in the country, the cost of tuition, on an average, of those attending school, will not exceed $10 per head per annum." Finances.-Receipts for the fiscal year ending July 1, 1854, were as follows:
|
The expenditures during the same period were $64,653 95, leaving $22,435 60 balance in the treasury, besides $2,000 city bonds.