Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/87

Rh In a few instances these structures were erected out of the proceeds of a direct tax, some by shortening the school term; but most of them came out of the proceeds of bond issues. On June 30, 1906, the total outstanding bonds issued for school purposes was $490,937, with interest varying between 5 and 7 per cent. In many of the grammar grades, classes corresponding in a general way to the first and second high-school years were maintained. These higher classes were supported out of the regular district funds, and numbered 302 pupils in 1905, and 419 in 1906. While they militated against the lower grades, they were authorized by the board of education to meet the practical demands of the small towns which could not support a high school. There were now regularly organized high schools at Prescott, Phoenix, Mesa, Clifton, and Morenci, organized under the law of 1895, and supported entirely by special tax. They followed a regular course of study, which admitted to the University of Arizona. In 1905 they had 332 pupils and in 1906, 342. The income and expenditures in the last year exceeded $21,480.

Manual training was first permitted in the schools by chapter 20, acts of 1905. This law authorized any school to give instruction in manual training and domestic science, “provided that such subjects can be pursued without excluding or neglecting the subjects previously provided for by law.” Districts with 200 children of school age might employ one teacher of these subjects for each 100 pupils in average attendance. These teachers were to be paid out of a special tax levied in the school district. Graduates of manual training or domestic science schools, with at least one year’s experience, might be licensed to teach; others must pass such examination on these subjects as the board of education might prescribe.

In the matter of teachers the number was gradually increasing with the demand, and salaries were improving, taking a sudden jump in 1905–6 of $8.09 over the monthly pay of the year before. The salary of women teachers was not keeping up with that of men, for it increased only $1.51 per month in three years.

The income of the Territorial school fund was growing. It was based on a 3 cent tax on the $100 of taxable property; on a tax on insurance companies doing business in the Territory, and on the rentals on school lands, which amounted in 1906 to $5,800.56. The county funds were also increasing, and the school poll tax demanded of all persons between 21 and 60 years of age, whether citizens or aliens, produced in 1906, $74,818.

While there was sufficient money for the support of the schools handsomely, it was complained that under the system of distribution then in use—

the small districts were unable to maintain school for 6 months, while the larger ones maintain sessions for 8 or 10 months during the year. It is sug-