When Public Education Was a Priority in North Carolina, 1923

An introductory paragraph from  "Eastern North Carolina: Where Prosperity is Perennial," a booklet published in 1924 by the Eastern North Carolina Chamber of Commerce. The booklet is online at http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/ncencyc/ncencyc.html.

No state in the Union has made such rapid increase industrially, agriculturally, and educationally as North Carolina, during the recent years. Her growth sounds more like a fairy tale than it does real facts. But it is a fact just the same. In 1900 expenditures for education in North Carolina amounted to less than a million; in 1923 the expenditures total $23,000,000.00. In 1900 the expenditure for new school buildings was less than $41,000.00; in 1922 it was more than $6,000,000.00. In 1900 the average value of each school house was $150.00; in 1922 it was $4,500.00. In 1900 the average length of public school term was 73 days; in 1922 it was 143 days. In 1900 North Carolina had about 30 high schools; in 1923 she had 475. In 1900 the percentage of illiteracy in North Carolina was 29.4; in 1920 it had been reduced to 13.1, the white race being only 7.1.