Although conditions vary among the eight areas under considera- 

 tion, it would appear that there is much to he gained hy reorganization 

 into cooperative districts. Aside from quality of education it is more 

 likely that per pupil costs could he reduced hy the elimination of many 

 small elementary schools and the small high schools. Among the eight 

 areas there are 14 districts having 100 or fewer resident elementary 

 pupils, and 16 districts with 101 to 200 such pupils (Table 11). Of the 

 former group 12 of the 14 districts had a staff of one teacher, and two 

 districts had two teachers. The costs per pupil were $377.16 and $293.49. 

 respectively. The high school costs per pupil were quite similar for the 

 two groups since, in each case, all high school pupils were sent elsewhere 

 on a tuition basis. For 14 districts maintaining a small high school for 

 fewer than 200 resident pupils, the costs per high school pupil were 

 much higher than for districts not maintaining a high school. There 

 were only three high schools in the eight areas having as many as 200 

 resident pupils. The average costs per pupil for these three high schools 

 was S434.41 compared to an average of S583.03 for the 14 smaller high 

 schools having fewer than 200 pupils. Here again, the advantage of the 

 comprehensive programs available in the larger high schools has not 

 been taken into consideration. In any event, it appears that a better 

 secondary education could become available to more pupils without in- 

 creasing costs, assuming a reasonably fair apportionment of the costs 

 among pre-existing districts. 



Equalized valuation, as a measure of taxable wealth, increases rap- 

 idlv from the smaller districts to the larger 14 districts maintaining high 



Table 11. A Comparison of Costs Per Pupil and Other Factors 

 Between Small Non-High School Districts and Small High School Districts 



19 



