§ * SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucester, Forest of Dean)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, in reference to a statement to the effect that the expenditure of the English public on education is £14,000,000 a year, whether it is known to the Education Department what is the extent of public expenditure in the United States upon similar services, and whether it is the case that as long ago as 1889 that expenditure was estimated at £28,000,000, and is now, for elementary schools alone, vastly higher?
§ MR. HANBURY (for Sir J. GOHST)From the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, it appears that the total expenditure on "common schools," which are defined as including public day schools of elementary and secondary grade—i.e., public primary, grammar, and high schools—was in 1889–90 (taking a dollar as 4s.) £28,622,043, or £3 8s. 10d. per scholar in average attendance; and in 1892–3, £32,668,655, or £3 13s. 9½d. per scholar in average attendance.