Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Education.

Popular education made rapid progress in the United States during the nineteenth century. In 1776 there were seven colleges in the English-American colonies, and the common schools were few and very inferior. At the end of the school year, 1898-99, the population of the country was estimated at 76,000,000, of which 20 1/2o per cent. was enrolled in the public elementary and high schools, or 15,138,715; and the total in all schools, elementary, secondary, and higher, both public and private, was 16,738,362. Of the total enrolment, 10,389,407 were in average daily attendance in the public schools. There was a total of 415,660 teachers (males, 131,793; females, 283,867), to whom $128,662.880 was paid in salaries. All public-school property had a value of $524,689,255. The, receipts of the school-year were $194,998,237; the expenditures, exclusive of payments on bonded debts, $197,281,603. The expenditure per capita of population was $2.67, and the average daily expenditure per pupil, 13.3 cents. These figures exclude statistics of the education of the [183] blind, the deaf, and other defective classes, which are treated separately in this work, and also secondary schools.