28 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI 
Expenditures for School Purposes 
Local expenditures for all public school purposes, including 
interest and sinking fund payments on school indebtedness, 
amounted to $52.5 million for the school year ended in 1928, 
or approximately one third of the total local expenditures. 
According to the data presented in Table 8, school expendi- 
tures for that year were smaller than in either of the two 
years preceding, and there was a further decline in 1929. 
As will be seen in the chapter* on Public School Finance, the 
decline in the latter year 1s largely attributable to decreased 
expenditures for building purposes. 
TasLe 8: PusLic Scuoor ExpPeNDITURES IN Missouri, 
1915-1929 
Source: Renorts of the Public Schools of the State of Missouri 
Year 
Ending 
June 30 
| Total 
Expenditures 
1915 $19,662,772 
1916 19,490 « 
1917 | 19733; 
1918 92.815 
|g1Q 21.94% .4 
“ear 
nr 
npe 
Total 
Expenditures 
nT N4Q ne) 
1) A. 
a4 7 
Year 
Ending 
lune 30 
1925 
1924 
1927 
19% 
1QN0C 
Total 
Expenditures 
<9 
Ts 
3 0s 
h 3] 
73 
Expenditures for schools amounted to only $19.7 million 
for the school year ended in 1915, and the total for each of 
the next two years was approximately the same. By 1922 
the total had more than doubled, and for the school year 
ended in 1927 school expenditures reached a peak of $55.2 
million, or an amount approximately 2.8 times as great as 
that for the school year ended in 1915.2 
Various reasons may be advanced for the rapid increase 
in school expenditures between 1915 and 1927. In the first 
place, the changes in the price level are significant, although 
it is evident from Table 8 that total school expenditures did 
not follow the general trend of prices. The reasons are 
obvious. Teachers’ salaries are not subject to immediate 
adjustment when the price level undergoes sudden changes. 
Then, too, the outlay for school purposes naturally varies 
with changes in the markets for labor and building materials. 
1 See Chapter VIII. 
2 School expenditures for the period 1915 through 1929 are considered by items 
of expenditure in Chapter VIII.