CHAPTER XX

COST TO THE STATE FOR EDUCATION

VALUE OF THE PROPERTY USED FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE DEAF

The various provisions for the education of the deaf have now been examined. There is to be considered but one question further. This is, what is the cost of it all? In the present chapter we are to see if we may not obtain some figures representing this cost to the state. First we shall find what the plants, that is, the grounds and buildings in actual use, are worth in dollars and cents.

Taking the nearest available statistics, which are those for the year 1912-1913, we have the plants of the institutions valued at $16,856,338, or, in round numbers, nearly seventeen million dollars. In all the institutions there were in this year 11,894 pupils, and we may thus calculate that there is property worth $1,414 for each pupil. We do not know the full value of the property used in the day schools and the denominational and private schools, but this would no doubt increase by some two million dollars the value of the property employed in the instruction of the deaf. Hence we have something like nineteen million dollars as the amount invested in plants for the education of the deaf in the United States.

For new buildings, repairs, and general expenditures for lasting improvements, so far as is reported, there was expended on institutions $848,068 for the year 1912-1913, which may represent the yearly cost of the upkeep of the institutions. For the other schools we have few figures, but they would add to this sum somewhat.

COST OF THE MAINTENANCE OF THE SCHOOLS

For the maintenance of the institutions for the year 1912-1913 there was expended $3,297,440. In forty-four, or about two-thirds, of the day schools for the year 1911-1912 there was expended $182,710, and on the basis of $120 as the average cost of the pupils in them, we have $225,720 as the full cost of the support of the day schools. For five of the private schools, the cost per pupil was $225, and assuming that this will hold for all, we have $133,550 as the full cost of the support of such schools, a part of course coming from tuition fees. Then our total expenditures amount to $3,656,710, or to over three and a half million dollars, which represents the annual cost of the education of the deaf in the United States.

FORM OF PUBLIC APPROPRIATIONS

Save for certain endowment funds in a few institutions, and for limited donations in a small number of schools, all the means for the support of the schools for the deaf, other than the private ones, come from the public treasury. In some of the day schools there are municipal subventions; in a few states the maintenance of certain pupils is paid for by the counties from which they come; and in the case of the Columbia Institution at Washington support is received from the national government. With these exceptions, the entire maintenance of the schools is undertaken by the legislatures of the respective states.

Appropriations by the legislatures are usually made in lump sums. In the case of the semi-public institutions the allowances are upon a per capita basis, being from $260 to $357, but more often near $300. In a few of the state schools appropriations are also based upon the number of pupils, as in Alabama with $230 a year for each pupil, in Kentucky with $150 a year, and in Iowa with $35 a quarter, the last two states having additional annual grants. In the states in which pupils are sent to schools outside, a sum of from $200 to $300 is allowed for each pupil thus provided for. In a few cases funds are received from a special tax assessment levied for the benefit of the school, as in Colorado with a one-fifth mill tax on the assessed property valuation of the state, and in North Dakota with six per cent of one mill.

COST TO THE STATE FOR EACH PUPIL

The average cost for the support of the pupils in the institutions for the year 1912-1913 was $277.23. In few of the schools does the cost go as low as $200, while in a number it is between $300 and $400. The cost per pupil in the day schools averages, where known, $120.60; and in the private schools, where known, $225.33. For pupils in the common schools of the country, the average cost is $31.65. Thus it costs the state eight times as much to educate its deaf children in institutions as it does its hearing children in the regular public schools, and four times as much to educate them in day schools.

The education of the deaf, then, is not an inexpensive undertaking on the part of the state. Because of the special arrangements necessary for its accomplishment, it comes high, compared with the cost of education in general. But considered merely as an investment, the outlay for this instruction bears returns of a character surpassed in few other fields of the state's endeavor.

FOOTNOTES:

The figures in this chapter are for the most part from Annals for January, 1914 (lix., pp. 26, 27), usually for the latest fiscal year, these being supplemented in a few cases from the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1912 (ii., ch. xiii.). In the institutions where there are departments both for the deaf and the blind, we have ascertained the proportionate part for the deaf of the entire institution. If no allowance is made for the blind in these, the worth of all is $17,751,186, and the amount of property for each pupil $1,492. For 1911-1912 the value of all was $16,454,798, or according to the Report of the Commissioner of Education, $16,387,726. In this Report the value of scientific apparatus, furniture, etc., is stated to be $918,053.

In most cases, as we have seen, the day schools are housed in public school buildings, special establishments being provided only in a few large cities. In the Report of the Commissioner of Education, the property value of four day schools, two being large ones, is put at $250,055, or $525 for each pupil; and if this be accepted as a measure, the property value of all the day schools is $1,019,550. The property value of seven denominational and private schools is likewise given as $324,717, or $1,358 for each pupil; and if this is taken as a measure, the property value of all is $865,404.

In 1910-1911 this was $503,323, and in 1911-1912, $772,245. If allowance be made for the dual schools, it is about ten per cent less. In the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education it is placed at $568,136 for 1911-1912.

With no allowance for the dual schools, this is $3,423,126. In the Report of the Commissioner of Education it is $3,285,099, for all but six institutions.

At the Conference of Charities and Corrections in 1906 this was estimated to be $3,200,000. Proceedings, p. 249.

For tables as to the cost of the support of the schools, see Appendix B.

These endowment funds are found for the most part only in certain of the semi-public institutions, and in a few state schools which have received land from the federal government. In the Report of the Commissioner of Education the amount of productive funds in thirteen states for 1911-1912 is given as $3,372,565, as follows: Maine, $2,000; Massachusetts, $193,674 (in 1910-1911, $369,723); Connecticut, $403,000; New York, $1,002,633; Pennsylvania, $373,758; Maryland, $4,500; District of Columbia, $11,000; Kentucky, $9,000; North Dakota, $600,000; South Dakota, $400,000; Montana, $160,000; Utah, $160,000; California, $53,000. Thus practically two-fifths belongs in the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, nearly one-third being in New York alone; while a little under two-fifths belongs in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Utah.

This is especially true of New York, where the counties pay the entire amount up to the age of twelve, and after that the state.

In this connection it may be noted that Congress has been asked to grant $100,000 to "encourage the establishment of homes in the states and territories for teaching articulate speech and vocal language to deaf children before they are of school age". Teachers are to be trained for this purpose, and pupils are to enter at two years of age and remain till the regular school age. See Report of Pennsylvania Home for Training in Speech of Deaf Children, 1904, p. 5; Proceedings of Conference of National Association for the Study and Education of Exceptional Children, 1911, p. 64.

Charges for clothing and transportation of indigent pupils are as a usual thing paid for by the county, though this is assumed by some states. Often a given sum, as thirty dollars, is allowed for clothing, or the actual cost thereof is collected from the county. This is done through the proper administrative offices of the county, there being also some judicial procedure, as where the county judge or similar official certifies by proof. The school is then reimbursed for the expenditures it may have made. Some such procedure is quite general, especially in the South and West, though in a few states, as Vermont and New Jersey, the town or township, where this is the political division, plays a similar part. In Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Louisiana, California, Nevada, and possibly other states, these charges are paid by the state. In Maryland they may be paid by the county, city or state.

It happens sometimes that legislatures are inclined to reduce the appropriations to as low a sum as possible, and superintendents may receive commendation for efforts to cut down expenditures. There is danger, however, that such a policy may be carried to a point where efficiency is sacrificed to seeming economy. On the question of cost, see Report of Mississippi School, 1909, p. 11; Iowa Bulletin of State Institutions, June, 1907, ix., 3; Ohio Bulletin of Charities and Corrections, Nov., 1907, xiii., 4.

On the value of this tax, see Report of Colorado School, 1896, p. 22.

In 1907-1908 this was $257.02; in 1909-1910, $253.92; in 1910-1911, $259.63; and in 1911-1912, $262.71. Without allowance for the blind in the dual schools, the amount in 1912-1913 is $289.60. According to the Report of the Commissioner of Education, the average cost is $303.58. It may be noted in this connection that the per capita cost for the blind in schools is more than that for the deaf, being $359.

In 1910-1911 this was $130.28.

In 1910-1911 this was $264.06.

Report of Commissioner of Education for 1909-1910. The figures for subsequent years have reference rather to average attendance.