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, according
 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 certain
 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 proportion
 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 following
 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 standpoint
 of the one-room districts, the elimination of which is
perhaps the greatest need; (4) it 1s based in part upon the