90 STATION BULLETIN 346 



sufficient to maintain the required elementary schools, and to pur- 

 chase the required textbooks and supplies. The state board apportions 

 from this appropriation the necessary money to the districts which 

 (|ualify and have applied for state aid. If the approved claims of the 

 districts entitled to state aid exceed the appropriation, the allotments 

 are reduced by an amount sufficient to brings the total grants within 

 the appropriation. The reduction in the allotment of each district 

 bears the same ratio to the total reduction as the equalized valuation 

 bears to the total equalized valuations of all the districts receiving- 

 state aid. The maximum aid that can be granted any district, or all 

 districts within a town, in any year is $6,000. The statutes do not pro- 

 vide for any maximum amount which a district can spend. All except 

 82 of the 241 districts received state aid in 1937-38, the amount total- 

 ing $346,705. 



Before December 1 of each year, each school district is required 

 to pay to the state treasurer two dollars for each registered pupil re- 

 siding in the district and who was enrolled in the public schools dur- 

 ing the previous school year. The state treasurer credits this money 

 to the account of the state department of education. The two-dollar 

 tax is called the "per capita tax for state-wide supervision," because 

 it is from this fund that a fixed salary of $2,000 per year is paid to 

 superintendents of the supervisory unions. The "superintendent's 

 excess salary" above $2,000 is determined by the school boards at a 

 joint meeting. This excess salary is proportioned among the respec- 

 tive districts in a manner which the joint board has authority to de- 

 termine. This so-called "supervision" is sometimes classed as a part 

 of state aid. 



Appropriations by the state legislature for the state board of 

 education are shown in Table 26. It should be noted that the gross 

 appropriations include state aid for equalization ($350,000) and for 

 superintendents' salaries ($100,000), and that the estimated revenue 

 from the two-dollar per capita tax ($156,000) appears among the de- 

 ductions. Thus the necessary net appropriation for state aid is re- 

 duced to $294,000. 



Table 27 gives the average current costs of public education per 

 $1,000 of equalized valuation for the school year 1939-1940. The dis- 

 trict's financial reports and budgets classify current costs between 

 elementary grades, secondary grades, and other current expenses. 

 Under the first two heads the chief charges are for instruction, includ- 

 ing teachers and educational materials, janitors, fuel and maintenance 

 of plant, and special activities, including health, transportation, and 

 tuition. Under "other current" are charged the costs of administra- 

 tion, including salaries of district officers and employees, the per 

 capita tax. and the excess salarv of superintendents. Total current 

 costs, therefore, exclude expenditures for construction or remodeling 

 of buildings, for new equipment, and for debt and interest. 



On this basis of current costs per $1,000 of equalized valuation, 

 as shown in Table 27, 73 percent of the districts fall within the range 

 of $5.00 to $15.00. In 12 districts the current costs are $20.00 or more ; 

 the highest is $29.99. The average cost of all districts amounts to 



