LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 27 



maintained by the district. Districts not maintaining a high school 

 are required to pay high school tuition, but not transportation; how- 

 ever, no district is liable for tuition in excess of the average cost per 

 child of instruction in that school or of all public high schools in the 

 state. In other words, if the tuition rate of a particular high school 

 were $100, and if the average cost per pupil for that school (or the 

 average for the state as computed by the state department, which- 

 ever is greater) were only $80, the district is not required by law to 

 appropriate more than $80 per pupil. The parents are responsible 

 for the remaining $20. 



The following is a general plan of district organization with re- 

 spect to combinations of elementary and secondary education : 



District organization-O Number of districts 

 Eight grades of elementarj' 



With no high school instruction 145 



Plus 2 years of high school 3 



Plus 4 years of high school 50 



Six grades of elementary 



Plus 2 years of high school 3 



Plus 3 years of high school 2 



Plus 4 years of high school 1 



Plus 6 years of high school 33 



No schools provided 4 



Total districts 241 



Of the 241 districts, 145 provide only the elementary education, grades 

 I to VIII, and only 83 provide the full 12 years of elementary and 

 secondary education, 50 of which operate on an 8-4 plan (eight years 

 of elementary and four years of high school) and 33 of which operate 

 on a 6-6 plan (six years of elementary and six years of high school). 

 For the year ended June 30, 1940, there were 73,205 pupils reg- 

 istered in the 12 regular grades of the public schools. Of these, 29.4 

 percent were registered in senior high school grades IX to XII, and 

 70.6 percent in elementary grades I to VIII. The state made a survey 

 of teachers and pupils during the school year 1937-38, the results of 

 which are shown in Table 4. Teachers were divided into four classes : 



Table 4. The Number of Teachers, Pupils, and Pupils per Teacher, with 

 Percentages, by Type of School, 1937-1938 



Teachers Pupils \j u c 

 Number of 



Type of School Per- ,., , Per- pupils per 



Number ^ Number . teacher 



cent cent leacuci 



Rural one-room 388 13.2 7,509 10.8 19.4 



Village elementary 863 29.5 23,368 33.6 27.0 



City elementary 777 26.5 20,544 29.5 25.1 



Senior high schools 902 30.8 18.145 26.1 20.1 



AH schools 2,930 100.0 69,566 100.0 23.7 



20 Biennial report of the State Board of Education, 1939. 



