THE SCHOOLS 



U5 



Montana 

 Stands 

 Near the 

 Top. 



comie down to this Hmit. More than four-fifths of all the schools in the 

 state have at least a six months term. Nearly all the town 

 schools are in session for nine months and many for ten. 



A recent comparative study of public school systems in 

 the United States, conducted through the Russel Sage Founda- 

 tion, discloses some very interesting facts Several states with 

 more than double IN'Jontana's population expend less for mainte- 

 nance of schools than M'ontana; only five out of the forty-eight states 



exceed Montana in the per 

 capital expenditure for each 

 child of school age. 



Only three states west 

 of the Missssippi river have 

 public school property of 

 as great a value in propor- 

 tion to the school popula- 

 tion as Montana, which in 

 this respect greatly exceeds 

 such progressive states as 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa 

 and Minnesota. 



In the annual expendi- 

 ture per child, in 1910 

 only five other states came 

 up to Montana's m'ark. Only nine expended so great an amount per child 

 per day of actual attendance. As the report well points out, "Low cost 

 means cheap teaching." Here 

 is where Montana's record 

 is especially good. The aver- 

 age annual salary paid to 

 public school teachers in 

 the United States as a 

 whole is given as $485, 

 while in some places it runs 

 as low as $200. In Mon- 

 tana, however, the average 

 is (given as $645 — an amount 

 equalled only by six other 

 states of the forty- 

 ^'^^it. A Modern Rural School Such as Is Now Being Built. 



All these statistics it will be noted, too, are nearly four years odd, and 

 during the last four years Montana has hcen making' more rapid progress 

 than m any previous period of her history. 



To the new settler the rural school is the one that is of greatest im- 

 portance. Here has always been the weak spot of the Amencan school 



The Kind of School House That Is Passing Away. 



—There's thirty million acres of farming land in Montana. 



