THE SCHOOLS 



U7 



pened very recently. One of the large eastern cities, needing a school 

 superintendent, secured for this place the head of the public schools in 

 Helena, a town of less than I5.0(X) inhabitants, and now only two years 

 later, this man is receiving the highest salary ever paid to a public school 

 superintendent in the United States. 



Secondary education often requires a long time for development, but 

 the growth of hig-h schools in Montana has been remarkably rapid in the 

 last few years. For a long time there have been good high schools in 



most of the ilarger towns, as Butte, Heleaia, Great Falls, Billings 

 The State's and Anaconda. In smaller towns, howev^er, the people were 

 Splendid determined not to be behind, and some years ago a law was 

 High enacted by the legislature enabling a high school to be estab- 



Schools. lished in each county at the expense of the whole county, 



and free to all children of the county. 



Already sixteen counties have taken advantage of this opportunity, 

 have erected fine modern buildings, and are carrying on courses of four 

 years, which are fully accredited for university entrance. The great finan- 

 cial resources available for these schools enables them to be well housed, 

 to have thorough 

 equipment, and se- 

 cure teachers of ex- 

 ceptionall ability. 

 The average salary 

 paid to principals of 

 all these schools ex- 

 ceeds two thousand 

 dollars per annum, 

 and some receive as 

 high as three thou- 

 sand. 



Besides these 

 county high schools, 

 there are district 

 h i g h schools of 

 equivalent character in many of the larger towns — indeed, there are only 

 three counties in the state which have no school accredited by the State 

 Board of Education, and even in these counties, there are schools doing 

 some good high school work, but not yet sufficiently equipped to be quite 

 able to meet the requirements for staindardization. 



While these standard high schools are accredited to the institutions 

 of higher learning, they are by no means dominated by the requirements 

 for university entrance. The great majority of high school students never 



Agricultural Hall, Montana Agricultural College, Bozeman. 



— Montana's water power tvould turn the wheels of the nation's factories 



