- Education - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Illustration; caption reads: Grant School on West Court
Street, built for $9,040 in 1890, was razed in 1984.]
-
- Salary of one teacher ran district back in '95
- Some things never change.
- The perpetual battle between taxpayers and the schools can
be traced back to at least 1895, when
- Superintendent D. D. MAYNE chastised the city for
not supporting the district in the style in which he felt it
should become accustomed.
- The school budget was $28,789, and MAYNE claimed it
was the lowest in the United States,
- but he certainly wasn't boasting. "... I feel it to
be discreditable to Janesville that for the past few years expenditures
have been reduced to the very lowest point possible... due largely
to failure to make proper repairs, to furnish proper apparatus
and to pay such salaries as will attract the best grade of teachers.
- "The fact that our charter has allowed us no more than
$18,000 to be obtained from the city for
- school purposes has been the cause of this state of affairs.
It is to be hoped that better days are coming, and that Janesville
may show her patriotism and her appreciation of public school
education by providing more generously for the maintenance of
her schools in the future."
- MAYNE compared the Janesville district to Madison's,
where expenses were $12,438 more with
- only 95 additional students. Janesville's enrollment was
2,234.
- "The cost of supervision and teaching of each pupil
enrolled, for one day, has reached the low
- point of 5 cents," he concluded.
- The 1895 budget of $28,000 barely covers the average salary
of one teacher today. Back then,
- teachers were paid about $40 a month.
- In 1893, 46 teachers taught 2,131 pupils at a ratio of 46
to 1. That was nothing compared to the
- 78 to 1 ratio in 1857, when 17 teachers taught 1,332 pupils.
- The schools were graded in 1856, even though, according to
1895 chronicler M. L. BEERS,
- "Surprising as it may seem, there were 'mossbacks' in
those days who blocked the wheels of progress."
- M. L. BEERS reminisces about the social gatherings
held in the Old High School of 1859:
- "Occasionally, a teachers' meeting was suspended and
the board of education and teachers enjoyed in its place a social,
with the indispensable accompaniment of refreshments, bright
toasts and inspiring interchange of thought and opinion."
- One interesting story involves an administrative change that
took place sometime between 1855
- and 1895, when 15 teachers were discharged in an effort to
"clear out the dead wood. This story would not be complete
without its sequel, and therein lies a moral," writes M.
L. BEERS. "In due course of time, the majority of these
discharged teachers were reinstated."
- Today, the Janesville administration heads an estimated $35
million budget, employs 600 teachers
- who belong to a strong union, educates almost 10,000 students
and squeezes its money out of state, federal and local governments
that tend to point fingers when it comes to footing the education
bill.
- Many would wonder today what MAYNE was complaining
about.
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