This assessed valuation will be of interest in connection with the following table of high schools accredited to the University of Missouri showing the numbers in relation to assessed valuation.

Number of accredited high schools with an assessed valuation of

These are town schools and do not have to transport children. If we allow for transportation, the $383,835 assessed valuation of this district will be about the equivalent of $290,000 in a town district. And there are of such districts 17 which have accredited high schools (about 12 per cent of the high schools of the state).

This means that under the law this district may organize as a town school district, having as it does over 200 children of school age (R. S. Mo. 1911, sec 10864), and will thereby be entitled to certain privileges, as for instance the privilege of increasing the maximum levy to 100 cents for school purposes (R. S. Mo. 1911, sec. 10825).

II. TRANSPORTATION. - Five routes will take care of all the children living more than one-half mile from the school house (children living less than one-half mile distant are not entitled to transportation under the law). The roads are in the main good clay roads.

The distances in every route are very reasonable and no child need be on the road more than one hour. The average will be twenty minutes. The wagons will usually carry less than the totals given because of absences from school.

$350.00 $400.00 $440.00 $400.00 $805.00 $2395.00

22.90 16.45

16.00 35.00

96.65 10.00 10.00 42.00 15.00 35.00 126.59

6.30 5.00 7.00 10.00 13.48 22.71 40.40 60.55 74.36 209.38 47.00 153.97 745.26 410.55 474.36 649.38 447.00 958.97 3140.26 53,030 97,850 69,635 73,010 111,755 383,835 65 40 40 40 75

Estimated Cost of Running Consolidated School

Transportation. There are 117 children to be transported daily. Those living in the village would walk. Figuring from cost in other states, we may set the cost at $1 per child per month. The total cost will be approximately $1000.

Teachers. The average daily attendance is 162. Five teachers can take care of these and the principal can teach some high school work in addition. Four of these teachers can be easily secured for $40, because while $50 is paid to get rural school teachers, as good a quality or better can be secured in a graded school for less money. The present principal of the village school can be retained for $65.

room.

Also by raising the levy to 60 cents they could put in another teacher, do two years of high school work, and have plenty of money left. Fifty-five cents, the levy now made in one of the districts, would probably do the work.

That is, by all the districts paying what one does and consolidating, they could have a graded school and two years high school. At present individual patrons in these districts pay a total of over $2500 a year, sending their children away to high school. Two years of this could be had at home by consolidating. There is only one principle upon which to work for consolidation the principle of improved service. Cheapness is no argument. The school which gives the best service for the money spent is the best school. Country schools are maintained on notoriously low taxes. Yet country children should have an education as good as that of city children.

The best education in consolidated schools will cost more than

poor education in one-room schools if people will pay the money

for the best.

If consolidated schools are conducted as poorly as in the oneroom schools, they will cost less; but nobody wants them to be run so poorly. They ought to be immeasurably better, and patrons should see to it that they have the best.

It is a characteristic of Missouri patrons that, when they understand a school proposition, they will vote the necessary money; and this holds for rural as well as for city patrons.

The friends of consolidation should spare no pains to make clear their plans. They should be made as simple as a primer, and then the fight should be made for good schools, not for cheap schools.

V. CONSOLIDATION IN TOWNSHIP-SYSTEM STATES

The following article, describing the work of consolidation in an Indiana county, is illustrative of the progress which may be made under the township system, with but one trustee to a township and with good county leadership.

Consolidation of Schools in Randolph County, Indiana

[By Co. Supt. L. I. Driver, in Bien. Rept. Supt. Publ. Instr., Indiana, 1911-1912, pp. 124-146.]

It is not the intention in this article to discuss the question of the superiority of consolidated schools over the district school, as that question has been settled by comparison in scores of consolidated schools all over the State. We wish to show, especially, the influence of these schools in the enrollment and attendance of the eighth year graduates. Randolph County, like all others of the State, for years depended solely upon its district schools, and we should not in any degree minimize the work of these schools, for through them alone is the present high efficiency made possible.

Consolidation first began in this county by the school building at Losantville, in Nettle Creek Township, having been condemned by the State Board of Health. The school authorities thought it wise to transport two small district schools to this place. Although this brought about a storm of opposition, the experiment was tried and proved a great success. The building was built in 1905 and is of concrete, costing $14,000 and has since been equipped at a cost of about $300, not including desks, globes, maps, and library. For the first time in the history of the county the flush system of closets was installed in a township building. A high school was established with a three years' course of six months each. has been increased to a four years' course of seven months and is now a certified school. From the very first this school has been a success, which is shown by the fact that 94 per cent of the eighth grade graduates have entered high schools.

This

The school corporation of Lynn was laid down and the township took charge of its school and built a six-room building at a cost of about $24,000. At the dedication of this building Doctor Hurty, in making an address, spoke of the "large and commodious building, sanitary in every part, large enough to meet the needs of the community for years.' The people of the community, realizing the advantages of such a school, abandoned two of the district schools and it became the duty of the same Doctor Hurty to condemn the building because of its lack of room in 1909. A four-room addition was built to meet the growing needs of this school, but again we find an insufficiency of room, as the building is now crowded in every part. Laboratories for physics, botany, agriculture, manual training, sewing, and cooking are installed and efficient work is being done in all of them. From a school requiring six teachers and having a high school course of three years it has