PUBLIC SCHOOL FINANCE 249 
It is claimed that the plan would result in a more equitable 
distribution of the burden of public school support, that tax 
burdens would be shifted so that they would be more nearly 
in conformity with taxpaying ability, and that property 
would be relieved of a part of its excessive burden, since local 
rates on property would be reduced. In other words, tax 
burdens, as well as educational opportunities, would be 
equalized by the adoption of the minimum program, accord- 
ing to the proponents of the plan. Stress is placed upon the 
guarantee of educational advantages that at present do not 
exist in many parts of the state, and the fact that taxes 
would be equalized is more or less incidental to the main 
purpose of the plan. Unquestionably the guarantee of cer- 
tain minimum educational opportunities and the equalization 
of tax burdens are most desirable. It may be questioned, 
however, whether a plan such as has been proposed can be 
adopted by Missouri without producing undesirable effects 
of as serious a nature as the conditions that 1t is proposed to 
remedy. 
There are other recommendations of a financial nature. In 
order to encourage consolidation, the state would pay to any 
enlarged school district in which a new school building has 
been erected, in accordance with plans approved by the 
State Department of Education, the sum of $1,000 for each 
one-room rural school displaced by such a building. Also, it 
is held to be desirable that the state should pay a larger pro- 
portion of the salaries of the county superintendents, and 
legislation is recommended to provide that the state pay one 
half of such salaries, the total contribution by the state not 
to exceed $2.000. 
Analysis of the Proposed Plan 
The financial plan recommended appears open to the fol- 
lowing objections: (1) it assumes that a local tax rate of 
30.20 per $100 of assessed valuation is a satisfactory basis for 
the equalization program; (2) it assumes that a levy of $0.20 
is equivalent to collections of $0.20 per $100 of assessed 
valuation; (3) the problem is not approached from the stand- 
point of the one-room districts, the elimination of which is 
perhaps the greatest need; (4) it 1s based in part upon the