Financing a School System

Abstract

In facing the problems of school finance one must keep in mind that there are many angles from which to consider them. Theoretically, there is but one consideration-What is best for the public-school children in the system of schools concerned? Practically, a superintendent is compelled to shape his course of action in the light of existing school laws and charters, community sentiment, the attitude of his board of education, and, finally, his own vision as to the relative importance of the various types of school organization and the various features of it, including buildings, grounds, teachers, equipment, courses of study, schoolroom and janitors' supplies, etc. These four factors we may consider in the order named, for the school official must necessarily face them in this order, as a few illustrations will easily show. Regarding the first of these factors, the school law in relation to the problem-the raising of school revenue is a matter controlled by state law in most states of the Union, though in some states, as in Illinois, certain school districts may operate under special charters granted by legislative enactment conferring privileges or imposing restrictions not applicable to the rest of the state. In any given city a superintendent will usually have to face the fact that there is a legal limit to the amount of money that may be raised for school purposes, and that there is a further legal provision concerning the division of the total available school revenue into the two large funds, known as educational and building, each existing for a distinct and specified purpose which must be respected. In Illinois, e.g., the legal limit for school revenues was for a great many years 3 per cent on the assessed valuation of the district, this amount to be divided equally between the educational and the building funds. In other words, 1? per cent was the legal limit of the levy for either fund, and if it should happen that the educational fund needed 2 per cent while the building fund was