# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S450
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

450 ‘ ; Report ‘of Board for Higher Education

Educationally or administratively, one large Preparatory school coul
readily perform the service of training 125 entrants at St. Louis
year, and even this school would be ‘small in comparison with edu
tional units in our country today. Good reasons exist, of -cotirs
for maintaining separate institutions on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gu
Coasts, in Canada, and possibly in the Northwest.

The Cost of Small Schools

Furthermore, it is well known that small schools are uneconomical
Classes are small, and instructional manpower is not fully utilizé

Overhead expenses are exorbitant. Per-capita costs are thus vastly
increased, as Table 7 indicates. oe

Table 7

PER CAPITA OPERATING COSTS TO SYNOD FOR
PRETHEOLOGICAL STUDENTS
FISCAL YEAR 1941

School P. T. Avg. Enrollment Per Capita Costs’
Milwaukee ...... 206 — $158.09
Ft. Wayne 169 171.73

t. Paul .... 122 232.07
Concordia 76 251.54
Winfield .... 82 272.36
‘Portland 23 313.87
Austin ... 25 319.83
Bronxvill 68 373.78
Oakland . 32 \ 413.56
Edmonton .

* Major repairs and faculty rentalgy not included.

In. spite of high per-capita costs, academic inefficiency usually a
companies low enrollments. Instructors teach in too many subj
fields; to hold expenses down, classes from different levels in
subject are frequently combined. . Space is lacking; equipment of alf#
types is inadequate; real educational Progress is often feeble.

Recognition of these facts in all probability was'a contributin
factor in the introduction of general education at the smaller inst#
tutions—Austin, Bronxville, Edmonton, Oakland, and Portland. Wher,
adequate constituencies made general education successful, some

the deficiericies of small schools were, counteracted, if not. who
eliminated.

The fact remains, nevertheless, that Synod could train its future

clergy with considerably fewer Preparatory colleges than it now ‘hag
On the other hand, violent contra

"One or two colleges is -inadvisa
Austin, Edmonton,
definite reasons.

ction of the educational system
ble. Certain smaller institutions
Oakland, Bronxville—should be continued for ve: