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15 : 



THE TREASURE STATE 



Lumbering is One of the Chief Industries of Montana. 



empire, but many a settler has come to Montana to find school facilities far superior 

 to those he had left behind in some of the older states. The revenues available for 

 the support of the common schools of the state are growing rapidly each year. To 

 begin with, at the admission of the state twenty-six years ago, two sections in every 

 township — that is, one-eighteenth of all the land in the state — were set apart for the 

 endowment of the public school system. Year by year, as advantageous opportunity 

 appears, these lands are sold to settlers, never at less than ten dollars per acre, 

 and usually more. A fund is thus accumulating for the endowment of the public 

 schools. Meanwhile lands not sold are leased and revenue is thus derived from them. 



The permanent school fund, derived from the sale of land and timber and invested 

 in interest-bearing bonds, is steadily growing each year and already amounts to more 

 than three million dollars, although less than one-tenth of the land has been sold. 

 Every year the income from this fund is apportioned to the school districts of 

 the state in proportion to the number of children of school age therein. While the 

 number of children has been rapidly growing, it has not grown so fast as the fund, 

 and the per capita apportionment has been steadily increasing for the past several 

 years. In 1911 it was $3.00; in 1912, $3.50; in 1913, $4.00; in 1914, $4.50, in 1915, $5.00 

 and $5.25 in 1916. As the county high schools do not share in this apportionment, it really 

 amounts to over $6.00 for every child actually enrolled in the common schools. Each 

 county also levies a school tax of four mills, which yields an average of about 

 $20 per pupil. Finally each district may supplement this by a local tax up to the 

 limit of ten mills. The results actually accomplished are most encouraging. The 

 minimum limit of school terms is four months, but there are very few that come 

 down to this limit. More than four-fifths of all the schools in the state have at least 

 a six months' term. Nearly all of the town schools are in session for nine months and 

 many for ten. 



