Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/250

 228 Charles Abner Howard After the enactment of the District and County High School Law of 1901, there was no further high school legislation until 1907. Since the law of 1907 was of such a nature as to require seven months to get into operation, the growth of high schools up to and including 1908 may be assumed to have taken place under the law of 1901. The table shows over three times as many high schools in 1908 as in 1900 and an increase of 131 per cent in high school enrollment from 1901 to 1908. The greater proportional increase in high schools than in enrollment indicates the organization of many small high schools during this period. Oregon was rapidly catching up with the educational procession. In the country as a whole, the number of high schools as well as high school enroll- ment had increased only forty-two per cent 49 while in Oregon, the former had trebled and the latter had more than doubled. While the County High School Law had defects which became apparent when it was put into operation, it did serve to enlarge the unit of taxation. It also made the high school technically free to all the boys and girls in the county. However, comparatively few counties had adopted this plan so a large portion of the state was without the advantages which it offered. Many village districts were attempting to support a high school on a low assessed valuation while all about them were valuable farm and timber lands which were not paying a single dollar toward the high school education of the state. At the same time, thousands of boys and girls who lived in these non-high school districts could secure a high school edu- cation only by paying such tuition as the town or city school board migh choose to collect from them. The Union High School Law of 1907 was designed as a partial solution of these problems. This law provides a detailed procedure by which two or more contiguous 49 Report of the United States Commissioner of Education. 1912. Vol II., p. 381.