PUBLIC SCHOOL FINANCE 237 A special form of state aid is provided for rural school districts with assessed valuation of $50,000 or less and average daily attendance of less than fifteen! The special aid granted is for the purpose of educating the children of such districts in other districts. Before this aid may be received the district must levy $0.65 per $100 of assessed valuation. The money so obtained together with the amount received from public funds and cash on hand is first applied to the cost of transportation and then to the cost of tuition. [f the district does not have a sufficient amount to meet all tuition costs, the state grants special aid in an amount suffi- cient to provide for keeping the children in school for a term of at least eight months. The amount of state aid in no case may exceed actual cost of tuition, and the actual cost of tuition may not exceed the pro rata maintenance cost for the preceding year in the district or districts attended. It is also provided that the transportation costs shall be reasonable, and the decision of the State Superintendent in this matterisfinal. State aid to consolidated districts? is in the form of a guarantee per pupil in average attendance during the preced- ing school year. For a district that levies a school tax of $1.00 per $100 of assessed valuation for teachers’ salaries and incidental purposes the guarantee is $50 per pupil, while for a district that levies a tax of $0.65 for the same purposes the guarantee is $40 per pupil. The amount of state aid is based apon the difference between $50 or $40 per pupil and the proceeds of the school tax plus county, township, and state funds and cash on hand. For example, if there are one hundred pupils in average atendance in a district that levies $1.00 per $100 of valuation on an assessed valuation of $300,000 the guaranteed amount is $5,000, of which $3,000 would be obtained from the tax. If funds from the other sources amount to $1,000, the state aid under this section would be $1,000. Special provision is made for state aid to certain consoli- dated districts for the maintenance of elementary schools.® LR. S. 1919, Section 11212. 2 Session Laws, 1925, p. 331. 3 Session Laws, First Extra Session, 1921, pp. 184 f. This section is practi- cally obsolete, but it was never repealed. In a letter dated Oct. 31, 1930, Mr. Chas. A. Lee, State Superintendent of Public Schools, stated “I do not recall but one instance in the last eight years when this section was taken into consideration ‘n apportioning the state school fund.”