EDUCATION. The unsatisfactory state of edu cation which has long existed in Georgia has been incidental to the unsettled and changing industrial conditions, and the strained social situation, complicated by the race problem. The rural problem in education, difficult of solution in States more fortunately conditioned, is es pecially aggravated in Georgia. Small schools are common, little having been done in the way of centralization. Each county has a supervisor, and better supervision is gradually being ex ercised. A graded system is being adopted, and the efficiency of the teacher is being raised by means of numerous institutes and normal schools. The most determined efforts, however, are serious ly handicapped because of the insufficiency of the school fund, for which the Constitution is partly responsible. It contains a provision requiring that before levies for the support of county schools shall be made, two successive grand juries shall recommend such levy, and that two-thirds of the qualified voters shall then ratify the action of the grand jury—a requirement most difficult to fulfill. The main dependence is therefore upon State taxes. The amount received from this source, though small, is increasing almost every year.• From $150,789 in 1880, it rose to $638,656 in 1890, and to $1,505,127 in 1900. Other public funds added to this, principally through local taxation, raised the total expenditure for 1900 to $1,980,016, or a little over two dollars and a half for each child five to eighteen years old.
The rural teachers receive on an average less than $130 per year. The school year is short, averaging only 112 days. The white schools are not infrequently extended by means of pri vate subscriptions. The building of schoolhouses and their repair are very largely dependent upon private effort. In 1900 the number of children five to eighteen years of age was estimated at 786,920, of whom 482,673 were enrolled in the public schools. This was a marked in crease in the per cent. of enrollment, and par
ticularly in the attendance, over earlier years. No law making education compulsory has been passed. According to the census of 1900, there were 158,247 illiterate males of voting age, of whom 125,791 were colored. In 1900 over 52 per cent. of the negroes ten years of age and over were illiterate, only three States showing a higher per cent., but this was a decrease of nearly 10 per cent. for the decade ending with that year. The illitefate native whites ten years of age and over were less than 12 per cent. of the native white population of that age, a per cent. which was exceeded in eight other States and Territories.
High schools are maintained in the larger towns. The University of Georgia, located at Athens, was opened in 1801, and is the first chartered State university in America; the in stitution is assisted greatly through private munificence. The State also maintains a normal school at Athens; a normal and industrial school (for girls) at Milledgeville; the North Georgia Agricultural College, at Dahlonega; a State In dustrial College for negroes near Savannah; and a technological school at Atlanta, under the management of the State University. Private or denominational interests have established a large number of institutions, varying greatly in magni tude and in the standard maintained, but called indiscriminately universities or colleges. The Baptists maintain Mercer University at Macon, and four other institutions for higher education. The Methodists maintain the Wesleyan Female College at Macon, Emory College at Oxford, and a number of others. The Presbyterians support the Oglethorpe University at Atlanta. and the Rome Female College at Rome. The Morris Brown College, Clarke University, Atlanta Uni versity, and Spelman Institute (female), all at Atlanta, are for colored students. Of the large number of undenominational schools, the most noteworthy is the Lucy Cobb Institute at Athens.