Mr. ROBSION. What do you mean by the yearly income; what do you mean by that statement? Mr. NORTON. The National Bureau of Economic Research recently made some epoch-making studies, in which they estimated the national income and divided it up by States. Income is the amount of services rendered and commodities produced in a year. They studied it by two different methods. First, they estimated income received salaries, wages, etc., then they studied it from the angle of income produced, using the statistics on production, and then they averaged their figures. The two different estimates brought results showing less than 10 per cent disagreement. Mr. ROBSION. You mean by that figure there that in three States there is an increase of wealth, or an income of efforts on the part of the person, or increase of produce behind each child anywhere between 5 and 20 years, between $3,100 and $900? Mr. NORTON. Yes. The States are given in detail. Income per child from 5 to 20 years of age. I will read a few. The United States as a whole, $1,992; Alabama, $895; evidently Alabama is one of these States [indicating on preceding chart]. Arizona, $2,100. You can see where they fall in between these two extremes [pointing out on chart]. Mississippi, $901. It is one of these poorest States. California, $3,371. Evidently one of those three States. Colorado, $2,159. And so on. I will pick out a few more extremes. Nevada, $3,566; North Carolina, $991. Evidently one of those three. And so on. In other words, some States have an enormous ability to support schools, and some have very little ability to support schools. Another thing-school expenditures per child. Three States spent $66 or more per child attending school in 1920 [indicating on chart]. Three States spent $9.71 or less in 1920 per child attending. That is a direct result of inequalities in wealth. Many studies that have been made throughout the country reveal similar inequalities. It is an old story to men who have studied educational systems; it is found repeatedly. You can not expect a community that is living right up against the edge of existence to provide much for its children; they can not do it. If you have merely enough to provide clothing and food and shelter, you can not build splendid schools, and you can not give your children opportunities, and therefore you have these tremendous differences in educational opportunity. We hear of equal educational opportunity. That has been a watchword; but equal opportunity in education is a myth in the United States. That has been proved by repeated studies, and this fact here brings it out as well as any one fact could. EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES The subsequent tables reveal some of the striking inequalities in educational opportunity that exist between States. The inequalities within individual States are much greater than are revealed by the State averages on which these tables are based. TABLE I.-Are all American children given equal school opportunities The figures in the above table were derived from the following sources: Column 2, taken from United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1922, No. 29, p. 44; column 4, taken from United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1922, No. 29, p. 16; column 6, taken from Research Bulletin, March, 1923, p. 86; column 7, Teachers' Salaries and Salary Trends, 1923, p. 91. All figures in Table I are based on official Government reports, as explained below. Column 2 gives the total number of children in each State over 7 and under 14 years of age. Column 3, the number of children within these ages who did not attend any kind of an educational institution at any time between September 1, 1919 and January 1, 1920. Column 4 shows the percentage not attending school according to this definition. The States are ranked in column 5 according to the percentage of children reported in school. The State with the highest per cent of children in attendance being ranked 1, etc. The figures in the first section of Table I are unfair to some of the States, since a child is credited to a State as "attending school" whether he attends but one day or for a full 10 months in a year. The figures of columns 6 to 9 are a better measure of school attendance. Column 7 shows the number of days schooling that each State would have provided in 1920 if each child from 5 to 17 years of age, enumerated in the 1920 census, had attended school eight months, or 160 days. Column 6 shows the total number of days schooling that were actually provided. Column 8 gives the percentage relationship between these two figures. The State rankings of column 9 are of greater significance than those of column 5 and are reasonably indicative of the relative efficiency of the States in keeping all their children in school for a reasonable period each year For figures in columns 2, 3, and 4 see Volume III, Fourteenth United States Census. For figures in column 6 see Statistics of State School Systems, Bulletin 29, 1922, United States Bureau of Education, page 14. TABLE III.--Inequalities, as indicated by figures on child labor The city children who do contract labor at home for factories are mostly children of foreign-born parents, whose standards of living are lower than the American standard. Yet in a study made by the Children's Bureau of 1,350 children working in oyster and shrimp canneries on the Gulf coast, all except nine of the children come of native stock. Illiteracy among these little folk is as high as 25 per cent, while for children of the United States as a whole it is only 4 per cent. (The New York Times, September 2, 1923.) |