COMMON SCHOOLS, schools for the common people or the people in general. It is only in modem times that education has spread to the masses. In ancient times education was generally confined to a limited class and it was only after the Reformation that conunon schools came into being. At first they were under ec clesiastical direction, but were gradually secu larized and placed under the control of the state. Most of the American colonies estab lished common schools and by 1825-50 the free school system developed. Since then the sys tena has extended to all the States and the scheme of instruction has been greatly enlarged. In the United States, therefore, the term means schools to which all persons within certain ages, except criminals and those with contagious dis eases, may attend and itnplies, moreover, that such schools are supported and controlled by the people and charge no tuition. At first the term was confined to elementary and sccondary schools, but there is a growing tendency to include in the common schools of the United States all grades and degrees from the Icinder garten to the university. There were in 1917
enrolled in the elementary and secondary com tnon schools 19,153,786 persons or 73.66 per cent of the school population. The average daily attendance in the same year was 14,216,459 or 742 per cent of the pupils enrolled. There are 580,058 teachers employed in the common schools, of which number 19.8 per cent are males. The average monthly salary of teachers was $66.07, and the estimated value of all pub lic property used for school purposes was $1,444,666,8.59. A total of $555,077,146 was expended on the common schools, or $5.62 per capita of total population and at a cost of $39.04 per capita of average attendance. The common school system in general use in the United States has been extended into Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippine Islands. Cuba has adopted the same system. See EDUCATION,