much better form than earlier ones and carry the clearest evidence that progress was being made along most lines, although this progress was not uniform nor always where most needed. Thus the superintendent says that the Territorial board of education “realized the importance of a uniform course of study” but had been “more or less hampered in its work in that direction because of a lack of funds to pay for printing and distribution.” He points out also that because of a lack of funds the school term was only six and one-half months, and recommends that the rate of taxation be raised so as to extend the term “to allow at least eight months’ school in each district,” but, instead, in 1899 the law was so amended (ch. 56) that for the purposes of fifth and sixth class counties the minimum limit of a five-months’ term was reduced to three months.[1] This term was to be uniform and “as far as practicable with equal rights and privilege.”
The high-school idea as embodied in the law of 1895 was not making progress. The superintendent discusses further the necessity of a compulsory attendance law. About 25 per cent of the children in the Territory were not even enrolled; of those enrolled the attendance, as the statistics given in the supplementary tables at the end will show, was low; and this failure was due, in the mind of the superintendent, to the lack of real compulsion.
When the period of 12 years from 1887 to 1899 is reviewed as a whole, it appears that there was growth, not with matured, well-directed, intelligent development, but the undirected growth that comes with increasing population and wealth, developing resources and ambition to provide the best possible opportunities for the incoming school population. In 1890 there were 55,734 white persons in the Territory; in 1900 this number had grown to 92,903, indicating an increase of nearly 70 per cent. A large proportion of these immigrants were from States where successful educational systems were already in operation, and they demanded similar privileges for their children in their new homes. They found a system in operation, but it was often the football of politics, often without expert direction, sometimes without direction at all. The schools existed because the children were there and money for schools was available. The system had been organized, and it now rumbled on without particular aid, but with some important developments and a more or less steady growth during the period. Thus in 1886–87 the school population was 10,303; in 1898–99 it was 19,823. The per cent of enrollment stood at 58.6 in 1888–89 and 80.2 in 1898–99: the average attendance based on school population for the same years
- ↑ This was intended to meet special conditions in Apache County, where the refusal of the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. to pay its taxes for 1898 had brought on a crisis in school affairs. After the trouble was settled the repeal of the law was recommended.
