310 MISC. PUBLICATION 218, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
stimulate local effort and to standardize the service rather than to 
provide tax relief. Of course, as a result of Federal aid, certain com- 
munities and certain States have undoubtedly acquired services or 
public improvements, particularly highways, which they would not 
have acquired if the aid had not been available. The subject of 
Federal aid will not be pursued in detail, as the effects are in general 
similar to those of State aid. 
EDUCATION 
According te a leading authority in the field of public-school 
finance (158, p. 192), a study of State systems of school finance in the 
United States will reveal at least five distinct conceptions as to the 
purposes of State aid: (1) To provide general tax relief; (2) to 
provide State administration and supervision; (3) to stimulate local 
communities; (4) to compensate local communities for costs incurred 
in providing school facilities despite peculiarly adverse or difficult 
local conditions; and (5) to equalize school revenues, school burdens, 
and educational opportunities throughout the State. A brief ab- 
stract of this authority’s analysis of these several forms of State aid 
follows: 
The oldest and most universally provided type of State school fund 
in the United States today is that designed to afford general relief to 
all political corporations supporting public schools. At the time 
such funds first arose, it was commonly conceived that the support 
of public schools was a local responsibility and that any contribu- 
tion from the State was merely a gratuity. This explains why no 
effort was made to determine whether the quotas received from the 
State, together with other available school revenues, would provide 
a sum sufficient to meet the costs of a satisfactory school program. 
A few States, such as Arizona, California, Utah, and Washington, 
guarantee annually a fixed amount for the education of each child. 
However, the method most commonly employed is merely to set 
aside the receipts from one or more specified sources and prorate 
them among all the minor civil divisions of the State on the basis of 
school census or enrollment. In recent years some States have 
improved on the basis of apportionment by adopting average daily 
attendance or aggregate attendance as the basis. 
In order that State funds might be administered and distributed 
fairly and efficiently, it became necessary for the State to assemble a 
considerable amount of statistical information and provide an increas- 
ing amount of supervision. In addition to meeting the costs of State 
administration and supervision, several States now provide funds 
from which to contribute toward the salaries and expenses of local 
supervisory and administrative officers, such as county or city super- 
intendents, supervisors, and attendance officers. 
At one time the State funds in certain States so nearly met the 
minimum costs of the local schools that they had a paralyzing effect 
on the local districts. There was a growing disinclination on the part 
of the local districts to levy taxes to supplement the State funds. 
Schools were commonly maintained only as long as State grants per- 
mitted, and on every hand educational facilities decreased in number, 
availability, and quality. As a result, States began to require that 
a district raise by taxation an amount equal to its State quota. 
