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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., October 1, 1898.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the annual report of this office for the year ending June 30, 1898.

Total enrollment in schools and colleges.-There were enrolled in the schools and colleges, both public and private, during the year 1897-98 16,687,643 pupils, the same being an increase of 432,550 pupils over the previous year. This includes the enrollment in private and incorporated institutions of all grades (1,554,725) and 15,132,918 in public institu tions. The increase in the public institutions was 390,841 (nearly 2.7 per cent), while the increase in private institutions was 41,709, or nearly 2.8 per cent over the previous year. I had occasion to note last year that the private school enrollment had slightly decreased in the year 1896-97 from the enrollment in 1895-96, and attributed it to the long-continued business depression which had caused parents, who feared reduced incomes, to remove their children from the private to the public schools. These returns for 1897-98 show the effect of the beginning of business prosperity. The tide had turned in the previous year and its effects had begun to be felt.

The private school enrollment is a little more than 9 per cent of the whole at the present time. It should increase in the coming years of larger business incomes to its normal standard, which is about 15 per cent of the whole. During "hard times" there is a contraction in the business of manufacturing and this reacts disastrously on agriculture and commerce, for it returns to the farm large numbers of persons not needed there, and at the same time decreases the demand for farm products by taking away the farmer's best market, namely, the home market at the neighboring villages and cities. Then, again, it decreases 'the amount of commerce and causes depleted incomes to the population engaged in transportation and trade.

The lesson of school statistics for 1897-98 is therefore a cheerful one inasmuch as it manifests the return of prosperity and the removal of farm population to the villages and cities to engage again in manufacturing occupations.

Besides the sixteen and a half millions at school in public and private institutions of all grades there are pupils enrolled in various

special institutions not included in the above enrollment. These items

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The miscellaneous in the above table includes such institutions as schools of music, oratory, elocution, cookery, and of various special arts.

This gives 17,172,935 as the grand total.

THE COMMON SCHOOLS.

The expression "common schools" is used in this office to include public schools of elementary grade-the first eight years of the course of study--and secondary grade-ninth to twelfth years of course of study-but no institutions for higher grade, although the State universities and State normal schools and professional schools might be included as institutions that draw support from public funds.

The statistics in the following table give a condensed summary of the common school statistics derived from data furnished this office by State superintendents in reply to circulars of inquiry. For convenience of comparison the items for the previous three decades are given. For a more detailed statement showing these returns by States, see tables 1 to 19 immediately following this introduction.

The average length of the school term has reached 143.1 days. Last year it reached 140.4 days, and for the years previous it had never reached 140 days. I have pointed out the fact that this increase in the length of school term keeps pace with the growth of large villages and cities. Urban populations have a school session of nine or ten months, while rural districts have three or four months, or at the highest six months.

This increase in the length of school term appears in the slight increase of school expenditure per inhabitant-namely, an increase from $2.62 in 1896-97 to $2.67 in 1897-98. There is an improvement from year to year in the qualifications of teachers, and this is indicated by increase in salaries. The cost per pupil for teachers' salaries was $11.83 for the year 1896-97 and $12.04 for the year 1897-98. The total expenditures for common-school purposes amounted to almost two hundred millions of dollars ($194,020,470).

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Pupils receiving secondary instruction (high-school grade).a

TABLE II.-Total number of pupils and students of all grades in both public and private schools and colleges, 1897-98.

NOTE. The classification of States made use of in the following table is the same as that adopted by the United States census, and is as follows: North Atlantic Division:
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. South Atlantic Division: Delaware, Maryland,
District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. South Central Division: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama. Mississippi,
Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. North Central Division: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South
Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. Western Division: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California.

Pupils receiving elementary instruction (primary and grammar grades).

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Public.d Private. Total. Public. Private. Total. Public. Private.

Total.

seminaries,

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a Including pupils in preparatory or academic departments of higher institutions, public and private, and excluding elementary pupils, who are classed in columns
2 and 3. A classification of public and of private secondary students, according to the character of the institutions in which they are found, is given in Chap. XLVI, vol. 2.
This is made up from the returns of individual high schools to the Bureau, and is somewhat too small, as there are many secondary pupils outside the completely
organized high schools whom there are no means of enumerating.

e Including colleges for women, agricultural and mechanical (land-grant) colleges, and scientific schools. Students in law, theological, and medical departments are
excluded, being tabulated in columns 9-11. Students in academic and preparatory departments are also excluded, being tabulated in columns 4 and 5.

d Mainly State universities and agricultural and mechanical colleges.

e Including schools of dentistry, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine.

f Mainly in schools or departments of medicine and law attached to State universities.

g Nonprofessional pupils in normal schools are included in columns 4 and 5.

h There are, in addition to this number, 21,687 students taking normal courses in universities, colleges, and public and private high schools. (See Chap. XLV, vol. 2.)

TABLE II.-Total number of pupils and students of all grades in both public and private schools, 1897-98-Continued.

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