lU MONTANA 191J, 



Portions of ^^ontana have already been settled for half a century, and 

 here there has been time for a great development ; and yet many of 

 the newer towns are hardly behind. Indeed the towns that grow up the 

 most rapidly are often the most enterprising- — in school matters as in other 

 things — and after all. what people get in tlie way of schools is largely a 

 question of what they want — want enough to pav for. 



Where good schools are lacking it is apt to be from one or more of 

 three causes. First, the people may not know that there are such things. 

 Thousands of people nb over the country have not yet learned of the 

 existence of modern schools. Or they are not able, or wdiat is 

 The Good more likely, they think they are not able to pay for them. 

 and the Bad O'r they waste their money by not entrusting the mmag'ement 

 in Schools, of the schools to thoroughly practical experts. 



The school -situation is thus ■'^ery largely a question of 

 local conditions, and there are still communities in Montana where the 

 schools are not very good, but rapid prog^ress is being made everywdiere, 

 and there are many localities where the schools can safely challenge com- 

 parison with those in any part of the United States. 



The resources available for the support of schools are growing rapidly 

 each year. To begin with, at the admission of the state, twenty-five years 

 agfo, 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 bv year, as advantageous opporttmity 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 schoo'l system. 

 I^Ieanwhile the lands not sold arc subject to lease and a revenue is thus 

 derived from them. 



The permanent school ftmd. derived from the sale of land and timber, 

 and invested in interest-bearing bonds, is steadily growing each year, and 

 already amlounts to about three million dollars, though not one-tenth of 

 the school lands haA-e yet been sold. 



There Is Every year the income of this fund is apportioned to the 



a Lot of school districts of the state, in proportion to the number of 

 Money for persons of school age. While the number of persons has 

 the Schools, been steadily growing, it has not grown so fast as the fund, 

 so that the per capita apportionment has been steadily in- 

 creasing for several years. In 191 1 it was $3.00, in 1912 $3.50, and in 1913 

 $4.00. As the county high schools do not share in this apportionment, it 

 really amounts to almost six dollars for every child actually enrolled in the 

 common schools. 



Each county also levies a school tax of four niills. This yields an 

 average of about $20 y>cv jiupil. Finally each district may supplement this 

 by a local tax up to the limit of ten mills. 



The results actually accomnlished are most encouraging. The mini- 

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



— One mining company alone paid $20,000,000 for labor in Montana in 1913. 



