Truancy and non-attendance in the Chicago schools : a study of the social aspects of the compulsory education and child labor legislation of Illinois / by Edith Abbott and Sophonisba P. Breckinridge.

  • Edith Abbott
Date:
[1917]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Truancy and non-attendance in the Chicago schools : a study of the social aspects of the compulsory education and child labor legislation of Illinois / by Edith Abbott and Sophonisba P. Breckinridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and the publication of educational material’ and to grants in aid of special forms of education, as for example, mechanical, agricultural, or vocational training. Under our American sys- tem, therefore, the control over education is left to the juris- diction of forty-eight different state governments. The result of this has been, of course, lack of uniformity with regard to every question of educational policy, irregular and halting progress, and standards established by the educational author- ities which vary from state to state.2 So universal, however, is the interest in this subject, so widespread the belief in its importance, that the expenditures for the support of the state educational systems amount to very large sums. The Com- missioner of Education, for example, reports that in a single years the value of the common-school property in the various states amounted to $1,266,382,277, while the expenditure reached the sum of $482,886,793, the number of teachers employed 547,289, and the enrolment in public elementary schools 17,077,577. The corresponding figures for Illinois show that the value of school property and school funds amounted to $110,860,023 and the expenditure amounted to $34,217,582. The number of teachers was 30,473 and the public-school enrol- ment 912,811.4 Another question relating to the agency which should pro- vide educational facilities for the people, and one which has See the annual reports of the Commissioner of Education. This is, of course, an incomplete statement, if agricultural and mechanical edu- cation under special acts of Congress be recalled. See, for example, the so-called Smith-Lever bill (Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1914, 1, 296). It is, however, substantially true with reference to the provision of general educational opportunity. 2Note the varying expressions with regard to private schools cited below, p. 4. 3See Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1913, I, 17 ff. 4[bid., p. 20. There was an estimated enrolment of 193,734 in private schools that year.
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