Territory 10,219 children between 6 and 18 years, which was then the school age, and 4,502 between 8 and 14 years, the compulsory age. Of these, 4,974 attended school in 1884–85 and 6,072 in 1885–86. In 1885 there were in addition 1,024 children in private schools. It may be assumed that most of these were Catholic Church schools, as the Protestants generally either accepted the work of the public schools as sufficient or were too weak to organize schools for themselves. Based on the figures for 1884–85, it was thought that perhaps as many as 7,100 children were in school during 1885–86. The average attendance in the public schools was not so satisfactory; in 1884–85 it was 3,226, or 64.9 per cent of the enrollment; and in 1885–86, 3,507, or 57.7 per cent of enrollment.
Twenty-one new districts had been organized, and while some of the new buildings were erected to replace old ones, the majority were in districts where none had existed before. New buildings and their appurtenances cost about $48,000. The funds to meet these expenses were raised by special taxes and by bond issues.[1] Thirteen primary schools had been evolved into grammar-grade schools, and while the whole number of schools in 1884 was 121, in 1886 it had grown to 150. Through purchase and donations 1,930 books had been secured for the public-school libraries in 1885–86, as against 1,171 volumes in 1884–85. Of the teachers, 86 had first-grade certificates, of whom 25 were employed in the grammar and high school grades, leaving 61 for the primary and grammar grades, showing that about one-half the schools were enjoying the services of first-grade teachers. At the end of his term the superintendent was able to say:
It may be safely asserted the public schools of Arizona are in charge of as competent a body of teachers as can be found anywhere.
The law of 1885 reduced the Territorial tax to 3 cents on the hundred,[2] and as a result, as Supt. Long says in his report:
Under the present law the cost of maintaining the schools devolves on the counties and is not shared by the Territory at large. * * * The revenue raised by the counties for the support of the schools during the past year, while it nearly equaled the sum obtained in 1884–85 from this source, was inadequate to a maintenance of the schools for the proper length of time. Boards of supervisors in some instances disregarded the estimates upon which the minimum rate of tax is based, as furnished by the superintendents, and in other cases no estimates were furnished, or if made at all, were based on erroneous calculations. As supervisors generally make as small a levy as possible under the law, no result could follow but a scarcity of funds.
- ↑ In 1885 $12,000 in bonds was issued for school purposes by Florence, in Pinal County. (Sess. Acts, 1885, ch. 3.) Graham County also issued $8,000 of bonds (chs. 111 and 112) for the town of Clifton.
- ↑ This was possibly brought about indirectly by the act of 1885, which reduced the upper county limit from 80 cents to 75 cents, but the law of 1887 went back to 80 cents. The reduction of the upper limit would undoubtedly suggest the reduction of the rate actually levied.
