Red Schools Rocking

The little red schoolhouse, an institution already badly battered by the winds of modernity, last week faced a tornado. One thousand Illinois schools have closed recently because poorly paid teachers are taking war jobs. Most of the shutdowns are one-room rural schools--the 9,703 one-room schools of Illinois outnumber those of any other state.

Most states have been consolidating their rural schools:

P:Consolidated schools are cheaper. In one-room Illinois schools, the cost per pupil is from three to 19 times as high as the state average, although teachers are sometimes paid as little as $400 per year. About half the one-room schools have fewer than 15 pupils.

P:Sanitary facilities in Illinois one-room schools are often dreadful. Many do not even have outhouses. A 1941 survey deemed that the water supply was "defective" in 88% of the one-room schools, and the toilet facilities "unsatisfactory"' in 54%.

P:Better-paid, better-trained teachers and better facilities in consolidated schools make for better education.

The toughest obstacle to school consolidation in Illinois is its archaic patchwork of 11.957 autonomous boards of education (there is no state board), which are a minor but profitable branch of politics. Today their schools, even though they have only three pupils, get state aid based on a minimum of 18. But beginning next July no more state funds will be given to schools enrolling fewer than seven students. This, as well as the teacher shortage, should speed the trend toward consolidation.

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