Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/150

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

140 JOHN C. ALMACK

schools of the United States was given at $419.28. In Oregon the average cost per graduate was in 1907-1908, $420. The average cost per student had fallen by that time to $84, this being more than the actual cost to the state, as the expenses of Monmouth were paid from private funds. That year (1907- 1908) the costs per student were in Rhode Island $294, Colo- rado $248, Massachusetts $150, Oklahoma $141, South Da- kota $192, Washington $189, Wisconsin $140. More mod- erate expenses were incurred by New York $106, Michigan $98, Minnesota $115, Pennsylvania $84, Illinois $75, and West Virginia $98.

The income per school was lower in Oregon than in any other state in the Union with the exception of Arkansas, Ver- mont, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and Maine. The cost of instruction for each student was exceeded by only seven states. In 1904 the board of regents rendered a report on each school, putting the costs on the basis of graduates. On this basis the figures are :

Number of

Graduates Cost

Drain 2 $3,478

Ashland 29 383

Monmouth 51 385

Weston 14 714

Computed on the same basis, the cost at Monmouth was in 1918 $219.62.

As to number of schools, Dr. Sheldon's study showed that seven states had one school only, thirty-seven had from two to nineteen, and two states had none. Thirty states had either two, three, four or five. New York had nineteen, Pennsyl- vania had fifteen, and Massachusetts ten. The small normal schools (of from 300 to 1,000 students) were preferred to the large central schools.

Salary schedules were included in Dr. Sheldon's report. He showed that $25,000 a year was the minimum that would be