Education has gone hand in hand with the material growth of Kansas. It
has been the boast of our people for twenty years past, that the best
building in every city, town or hamlet in the State, was the school
house. The census of 1880 revealed the fact that only 25,503 inhabitants
of Kansas, over ten years of age, were unable to read. The growth of our
school system is shown by the following figures:
═══════╤══════════╤════════╤═══════════╤═══════════╤══════════╤═════════
│_Scholars │_School │ _School │ │ _Amount │_Value of
_Year._│enrolled._│houses._│districts_.│_Teachers._│ paid to │ school
│ │ │ │ │teachers._│houses._
───────┼──────────┼────────┼───────────┼───────────┼──────────┼─────────
1860 │ 5,915│ 154│ │ 189│ │
1865 │ 26,341│ 640│ 721│ 899│ $86,898│ $122,822
1870 │ 63,218│ 1,501│ 1,950│ 2,210│ 318,596│1,520,041
1875 │ 141,606│ 3,715│ 4,560│ 5,383│ 689,906│3,742,507
1880 │ 231,434│ 5,315│ 6,134│ 7,780│ 1,088,504│4,049,212
1885 │ 335,538│ 6,673│ 7,142│ 8,129│ 1,989,169│6,704,176
───────┴──────────┴────────┴───────────┴───────────┴──────────┴─────────
In 1861 the amount expended for the support of common schools was only
$1,700, while the expenditures for the same purpose, during the year
1885, aggregated $2,977,763. For the five years ending with 1865, the
expenditures for public schools aggregated $262,657.21; for the next
succeeding five years they aggregated $2,259,497.89; for the next five,
$7,552,191.43; for the next five, $7,509,375.23; and for the five years
ending with 1885 the expenditures for public schools aggregated
$12,630,480.64. Thus Kansas has expended for the support of her common
schools, during the past quarter of a century, the enormous sum of
$30,214,202.40.
The table following shows the expenditures each year, from 1861 to 1885,
inclusive, and illustrates not only the growth of Kansas, but the
general and generous interest of its citizens in public education:
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_Year._ │_Expenditures._
───────────────┼───────────────
1861 │ $1,700 00
1862 │ 11,894 45
1863 │ 26,867 03
1864 │ 84,221 30
1865 │ 137,974 43
1866 │ 225,426 27
1867 │ 364,402 50
1868 │ 431,316 54
1869 │ 565,311 17
1870 │ 673,041 41
1871 │ 1,074,946 09
1872 │ 1,701,950 44
1873 │ 1,657,318 27
1874 │ 1,638,977 99
1875 │ 1,478,998 64
1876 │ 1,165,638 80
1877 │ 1,394,188 11
1878 │ 1,541,417 12
1879 │ 1,589,794 30
1880 │ 1,818,336 90
1881 │ 1,996,335 64
1882 │ 2,194,174 65
1883 │ 2,579,243 62
1884 │ 2,882,963 53
1885 │ 2,977,763 23
│ ——————————————
Total │ $30,214,202 40
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