or more years of age. The ten rural districts, however, had a smaller 

 proportion of its population under fifteen and twenty-five years of age 

 and a larger proportion in the age groups of twenty-five to sixty-four 

 and sixty-five and over. The difference is not great but it does indicate 

 that suburban areas tend to have more young people with children, and 

 are not experiencing a rapid growth in retirees. 



A Look at Tax Rates 



The annual school district meeting approves a budget which in total 

 is the amount of appropriations in support of the public schools for the 

 ensuing year. After deducting estimated revenues from miscellaneous 

 sources, the net amount is levied as a property tax. The school tax rate, 

 therefore, is merely a ratio between net appropriations and total valua- 

 tion of taxable property. School appropriations are influenced by such 

 things as ability to pay, minimum needs, and attitude of residents to- 

 ward the support of schools. Although a tax rate is a resultant, and con- 

 sequently a dependent factor, it does receive some consideration when 

 determining appropriations at the annual school meeting, and thereby 

 might reflect the social and economic situation prevailing within indivi- 

 dual districts. 



A scatter diagram was constructed to indicate the relation between 

 expenditures per pupil and school tax rates for both elementary and 

 secondary pupils. There is no apparent tendency for expenditures per 

 pupil to decline under conditions of high tax rates. Expenditures per 

 elementary pupil for districts having a population under 1,000 vary ex- 

 tensively between $195 and $750. These two extreme cases have a tax 

 rate of $10.31 and $10.06 respectively. The larger expenditure is the re- 

 sult of high taxable wealth, whereas the $195 exists in a district of low 

 taxable wealth. With one exception (Loudon, $460) the expenditures 

 per elementary pupil for districts having a population of 1,000 to 2,500 

 fall within the much narrower range of $207 and $392. In other words, 

 the more densely populated districts fall within the relatively narrow 

 pattern of expenditures per pupil regardless of tax rates. In fact, expen- 

 ditures per elementary pupil tend to be quite uniform when tax rates 

 are above $22 per $1,000 of equalized valuation. 



Average expenditures per high school pupil are much higher than 

 for elementary pupils and the general pattern is for much greater ex- 

 tremes. The extreme cases, however, are those which transport all high 

 school pupils to other districts. The majority of districts which maintain 

 a high school have tax rates in excess of $22 and, with a few exceptions, 

 the expenditures per pupil fall within the relatively narrow range of 

 $400 and $550. 



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