254 THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI 
of $0.20 per $100 of assessed valuation is the difference be- 
tween tax levies and tax collections. There is nothing in the 
minimum program to indicate that a school district will have 
to collect the amount of the taxes levied before it is entitled 
to aid. Consequently, the districts in which tax delinquency 
is most serious may see fit to depend very largely on state aid, 
since it may be possible to maintain a satisfactory school 
without collecting all of the local tax levy. It would seem 
that a financial program such as has been recommended 
would clearly require the collection of a certain proportion 
of the local levy, in order that each district might be required 
to finance at least a minimum proportion of its expenditures 
out of funds raised locally. The question may well be raised 
whether the transfer of a large part of the cost of the public 
schools to the state might not accentuate the delinquency 
problem in those districts in which the total aid would be 
relatively large as compared with the amount collected by the 
district. 
Probably the outstanding educational need in Missouri is 
for the elimination of the one-room rural schools, particularly 
in the districts in which the attendance is small and the cost 
per pupil, therefore, relatively high. This need is especially 
urgent in many of the poorer sections of the state. The 
financial plan offers an inducement for these districts to enter 
or form enlarged districts, since $1,000 would be paid on 
account of each one-room school displaced by a consolidated 
district. This part of the plan would not, however, become 
operative during the first four years, and after that it is 
wholly voluntary. It is perhaps too optimistic to expect 
that such districts will be formed in many sections of the 
state without considerable inducement, if at all. The one- 
room district is in many instances firmly entrenched, and the 
residents of the community often are reluctant to accept a 
change for the better. A recent study published by the New 
York State Tax Commission contains a statement that might 
be applied to Missouri: 
“The most commonly advocated panacea is increased 
state aid. There can be no doubt that the recently enacted 
increase in state aid for schools was needed; yet there is 
doubt that it would have been needed if the education system