260 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI 
superintendent of schools in each county could prepare a map 
of his county showing the present district lines and also 
possible enlarged districts. The county superintendent could 
also make available to the school authorities of the state 
such information as he may have concerning the attitude in 
the county towards consolidation and redistricting. With this 
information, both the county superintendents and the state 
school authorities would be in a position to further a redis- 
tricting and consolidation program. 
The most effective form of aid that the state can grant 
appears to be aid in furtherance of the consolidation move- 
ment. On’ the basis of the facts that have been presented, 
the logical solution would seem to be financial assistance to 
newly established consolidated districts and also certain 
assistance to the smaller districts when for various reasons 
consolidation is not feasible. The additional building aid to 
consolidated districts recommended by the State Survey 
Commission indicates a satisfactory approach to the problem, 
and it is possible that by increasing the state grants on ac- 
count of buildings displaced and the maintenance apportion- 
ments to consolidated districts the consolidation program 
could be pushed forward rapidly. The only other form of 
additional aid that might be considered is aid to rural dis- 
tricts that could not be fitted into the consolidation program. 
Some of the present forms of state aid, as has been seen, 
have undesirable features. If the state adopted an effective 
central supervision of assessments, these objectionable fea- 
tures would be eliminated in part. It is not considered good 
business procedure to make a distribution of funds on a basis 
that is not subject to control by the authority disbursing the 
funds. This, however, is what Missouri has been doing in 
granting state aid that in any way depends on assessed 
valuation. If it were believed that the assessment procedure 
would not be greatly improved in the near future, assessed 
valuation should be eliminated as soon as possible as a basis 
for the distribution of state funds. 
State support of education on the basis of need probably 
represents the only effective approach to the problem of 
public school finance in Missouri. Examination of the 
present distributions indicates that they are not necessarily