The range between the lowest and highest tax rates is much greater 

 among districts having a small population (Table 16) . Average tax rates 

 tend to increase somewhat as population increases. A much larger pro- 

 portion of the sparsely populated districts have low tax rates as com- 

 pared to districts of larger population. Only one district with a popula- 

 tion of 1,500 or more has a tax rate under $15, and only eleven of the 

 fifty-three districts under 500 population have a tax rate over S22. A 

 large majority of the districts with low tax rates are among those having 

 a small population. This is merely an observation and it is not to be 

 assumed that low tax rates exist just because of small population. 



Table 16. The Ranges and Averages of School Tax Rates 

 According to Population. 



Of the districts having a population of 1,000 to 2,500, only two had 

 a school tax rate below $12.00 per $1,000 of equalized valuation. Con- 

 sequently, districts with low school tax rates are mostly limited to those 

 more sparsely populated districts under 1,000 of population. Although 

 a tax rate is a dependent varialile resulting from appropriations as re- 

 lated to taxable wealth, it seem? appropriate to compare districts with a 

 low school tax rate with those having a higher school tax rate. For this 

 purpose sixteen districts having a school tax rate below $12 are com- 

 pared with fourteen districts having a tax rate above $23 (Table 17) . For 

 each group, districts maintaining a high school or having a private 

 school, were excluded in order to make results more comparable. 



Although the districts having a high tax rate had, on the average, 

 more pupils and a somewhat larger population, the average expendi- 

 tures per pupil were $107 less for elementary pupils, but only $11 less 

 for high school pupils. However, the average percentage of the property 

 tax for schools was much greater for the high tax rate districts, and 

 the average percent of taxable wealth owned by permanent residents 

 was about double that of the low tax districts. Nine of the sixteen dis- 

 tricts having low tax rates appropriated money for transportation of high 

 school pupils whereas only four of the fourteen high tax rate districts 



22 



