288 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. 8S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
are all in the cut-over region. If there were to be equality of tax 
burden for the support of the minimum standard, the State would have 
to become the unit of taxation or provide for equalization among 
counties. 
Neither the county-unit plan nor State equalization insures full 
equality of educational opportunity. That is an unattainable ideal. 
Children living in remote places cannot be provided school facilities 
equal to those enjoyed by children living in the cities. All, however, 
should be guaranteed a reasonable educational opportunity, and this 
cannot be until the weak schools are eliminated. While the consolida- 
tion movement has been pronounced, there are still many one-room 
schools. In the 10 years from 1917-18 to 1927-28, the total number 
of consolidated schools reported to the Federal Office of Education 
increased from 5,349 to 17,004, and the number of 1-room schools 
decreased from 195,397 to 153,006. The office estimated that by 1938 
there would be fewer than 110,000 one-room schools (110, p. 171.) 
It is probable that there will always be need for a few one-teacher 
schools to serve isolated communities. But such schools need not be 
poor schools. School authorities concede that, if these small schools 
are supplied capable teachers and attendance is restricted as far as 
possible to children under 12 years of age, they can be very good schools. 
A well-arranged and well-equipped school building, in which a well- 
trained teacher is giving instruction to a small group of young children, 
can be a model school, for it permits individual instruction. One of 
the schools which Columbia University holds up as a model is such a 
school. But schools of this kind are bound to be costly when cost is 
reckoned on a per pupil basis. 
Consolidation of rural schools necessarily involves the transporta- 
tion of many of the pupils. A recent study (150) shows that on 
January 1, 1931, there were in the United States 1,478,699 children 
being transported to school by bus. There were 48,775 busses in 
operation serving 16,547 schools. North Carolina led all other States 
in both the number of children carried and the number of schools 
served, 181,141 children being transported to 1,293 schools. Indiana 
was next, transporting 145,715 children to 905 schools. The average 
cost of transportation is $23. 02 per child, and the range is from $10.65 
in North Carolina to $49.41 in Wyoming. The cost in Indiana is 
SAt.o2. 
The benefits of consclidation have been more in ae direction of 
longer terms and better schools than in reduced expenditures. The 
adoption of the county as the unit of taxation has the effect, however, 
of equalizing taxes within a county and thus of giving relief to those 
districts which have a limited tax base. To the extent that the State 
shares in school support, the inequalities would be further mitigated. 
The adoption of the county-unit plan might not always reduce county 
taxes, but it would be very likely to give relief to forest communities 
located in counties containing varied resources. Regardless of its 
effect on forest communities, it can be commended as inherently just 
and in keeping with the needs of a modern rural civilization. 
COUNTIES 
It is now recognized that there are even too many counties, particu- 
larly in the South. Many of the counties are so small in area, so 
thinly populated, and so weak in taxable resources that they cannot 
