Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/254

 232 Charles Abner Howard This law, which was optional, was adopted in ten counties before 1915, when it was superceded by another law in those counties in which it had not been adopted. 52 In those counties where it had been put into operation, this law had a tendency to equalize the high school ex- pense since the money to be distributed came from a tax on all the property of the county, but this equalization was not complete since even the forty dollars which a district might receive for each of the first twenty stu- dents enrolled was little more than half the per capita cost of running the school. The rest of the money was raised by special tax within the district. A moment's consideration brings to light the fact that this law was designed particularly to aid the very small high school. A high school of twenty students would re- ceive county aid to the amount of $40 per capita ; a high school of forty students would receive an average of $35 per capita; a high school of 100 students would receive an average of but $21.50 per capita; and a high school of 300 students would receive an average of only $15.50 per capita. The small rural high schools flourished under this arrangement and many new ones were organized in the counties in which the law was adopted. Lane County, whose superintendent had framed and whose legislative delegation had introduced this measure, had sixteen high schools drawing money from this fund during the school year 1916-1917, each with an enrollment of less than fifty. 53 In fact, ten of these Lane County high schools had enrollments of twenty-five or less. The record for school year 1915-1916 shows fifty-seven high schools with enrollments below fifty in the ten counties which had voted in the County High Schools Fund, while the thirteen 52 There is some discrepancy in the information as to the number of counties that had voted in this law. The number here given is the result of comparison of figures in the Official Directory of Superintendents, etc., issued by the State Superintendent for 1915, 1916 and 1917. 53 0fficial Directory of Superintendents, Supervisors, Principals, High School Teachers and Standard High Schools of Oregon. 1915. p. 102.