ARTICLE VII.-Education. SEC. 1. The legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction embracing free elementary schools of every needed kind and grade, a university with such technical and professional departments as the public good may require and the means of the State allow, and such other institutions as may be necessary. SEC. 2. The following are declared to be perpetual funds for school purposes, of which the annual income only can be appropriated, to-wit: Such per centum as has been or may hereafter be granted by congress on the sale of lands in this State; all moneys arising from the sale or lease of sections number sixteen and thirty-six in each township in the State and the lands selected or that may be selected in lieu thereof; the proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted to this State, where, by the terms and conditions of the grant, the same are not to be otherwise appropriated; the net proceeds of lands and other property and effects that may come to the State by escheat or forfeiture, or from unclaimed dividends or distributive shares of the estates of deceased persons; all moneys, stocks, bonds, lands and other property now belonging to the common school fund. SEC. 3. To the sources of revenue above mentioned shall be added all other grants, gifts and devises that have been or may hereafter be made to this State and not otherwise appropriated by the terms of the grant, gift or devise. SEC. 4. All moneys, stocks, bonds, lands and other property belonging to a county school fund, except such moneys and property as may be provided by law for current use in aid of public schools, shall belong to and be securely invested and sacredly preserved in the several counties as a county public school fund, the income of which shall be appropriated exclusively to the use and support of free public schools in the several counties of the State. SEC. 5. All fines and penalties under general laws of the State shall belong to the public school fund of the respective counties and be paid over to the custodians of such funds for the current support of the public schools therein. SEC. 6. All funds belonging to the State for public school purposes, the interest and income of which only are to be used, shall be deemed trust funds in the care of the State, which shall keep them for the exclusive benefit of the public schools, and shall make good any losses that may in any manner occur, so that the same shall remain forever inviolate and undiminished. None of such funds shall ever be invested or loaned except on the bonds issued by school districts, or registered county bonds of the State, or State securities of this State, or of the United States. SEC. 7. The income arising from the funds mentioned in the preceding section, together with all the rents of the unsold school lands and such other means as the legislature may provide, shall be exclusively applied to the support of free schools in every county in the State. SEC. 8. Provision shall be made by general law for the equitable distribution of such income among the several counties according to the number of children of school age in each; which several counties shall in like manner distribute the proportion of said fund by them received respectively to the several school districts embraced therein. But no appropriation shall be made from said fund to any district for the year in which a school has not been maintained for at least three months; nor shall any portion of any public school fund ever be used to support or assist any private school, or any school, academy, seminary, college or other institution of learning controlled by any church or sectarian organization or religious denomination what soever. SEC. 9. The legislature shall make such further provision by taxation or other wise, as with the income arising from the general school fund will create and maintain a thorough and efficient system of public schools, adequate to the proper instruction of all the youth of the State, between the ages of six and twenty-one years, free of charge; and in view of such provision so made, the legislature shall require that every child of sufficient physical and mental ability shall attend a public school during the period between six and eighteen years for a time equivalent to three years, unless educated by other means. SEC. 10. In none of the public schools so established and maintained shall distinction or discrimination be made on account of sex, race or color. SEC. 11. Neither the legislature nor the superintendent of public instruction shall have power to prescribe text books to be used in the public schools. SEC. 12. No sectarian instruction, qualifications or tests shall be imparted, exacted, applied or in any manner tolerated in the schools of any grade or character controlled by the State, nor shall attendance be required at any religious service therein, nor shall any sectarian tenets or doctrines be taught or favored in any public school or institution that may be established under this constitution. SEC. 13. The governor, secretary of state, state treasurer and superintendent of public instruction shall constitute the board of land commissioners, which, under direction of the legislature, as limited by this constitution, shall have the direction, control, leasing and disposal of the lands of the State granted, or which may be hereafter granted for the support and benefit of public schools, subject to the further limitations that the sale of all lands shall be at public auction, after such delay (not less than the time fixed by congress), in portions at proper intervals of time, and at such minimum prices (not less than the minimum fixed by congress), as to realize the largest possible proceeds. SEC. 14. The general supervision of the public schools shall be entrusted to the state superintendent of public instruction, whose powers and duties shall be prescribed by law. THE UNIVERSITY. SEC. 15. The establishment of the University of Wyoming is hereby confirmed, and said institution, with its several departments, is hereby declared to be the University of the State of Wyoming. All lands which have been heretofore granted or which may be granted hereafter by congress unto the university as such, or in aid of the instruction to be given in any of its departments, with all other grants, donations or devises for said university, or any of its departments, shall vest in said university, and be exclusively used for the purposes for which they were granted, donated or devised. The said lands may be leased on terms approved by the land commissioners, but may not be sold on terms not approved by congress. SEC. 16. The university shall be equally open to students of both sexes, irrespective of race or color; and, in order that the instruction furnished may be as nearly free as possible, any amount in addition to the income from its grants of lands and other sources above mentioned, necessary to its support and maintenance in a condition of full efficiency shall be raised by taxation or otherwise, under provisions of the legislature. SEC. 17. The legislature shall provide by law for the management of the university, its lands and other property by a board of trustees consisting of not less than seven members, to be appointed by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate, and the president of the university, and superintendent of public instruction, as members ex-officio, as such having the right to speak but not to vote. The duties and powers of the trustees shall be prescribed by law. Article VII, section 23, locates the State University at the city of Laramie, and provides that the legislature shall have no power to change or locate it permanently, but may, ten years after the adoption of the constitution, provide by law for submitting the question of the permanent location to the popular vote. -89 CONSTITUTION OF MISSISSIPPI, NOVEMBER 1, 1890.1 ART. III, SEC. 18. No religious test as a qualification for office shall be required; and no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect, or mode of worship; but the free enjoyment of all religious sentiments and the different modes of worship shall be held sacred. The rights hereby secured shall not be construed to justify acts of licentiousness injurious to morals or dangerous to the peace and safety of the State, or to exclude the Holy Bible from use in any public school of this State. ART. IV, SEC. 90. The Legislature shall not pass local, private, or special laws providing for the management or support of any private or common school, incorporating the same or granting such school any privileges. ARTICLE VIII.-Education. SEC. 201. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to encourage by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement, by establishing a uniform system of free public schools, by taxation, or otherwise, for all children between the ages of five and twenty-one years, and, as soon as practicable, to establish schools of higher grade. SEC. 202. There shall be a Superintendent of Public Education, elected at the same time and in the same manner as the Governor, who shall have the qualifications required of the Secretary of State, and hold his office for four years and until his successor shall be elected and qualified, who shall have the general supervision of the common schools, and of the educational interests of the State, and who shall perform such other duties and receive such compensation as shall be prescribed by law. SEC. 203. There shall be a Board of Education, consisting of the Secretary of State the Attorney General, and the Superintendent of Public Education, for the management and investment of the school funds, according to law, and for the performance of such other duties as may be prescribed. The Superintendent and one other of said Board shall constitute a quorum. SEC. 204. There shall be a Superintendent of Public Education in each county, who shall be appointed by the Board of Education by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, whose term of office shall be four years, and whose qualifications, compensation, and duties, shall be prescribed by law; Provided, That the Legislature shall have power to make the office of County School Superintendent of the several counties elective, or may otherwise provide for the discharge of the duties of County Superintendent, or abolish said office. SEC. 205. A public school shall be maintained in each school district in the county at least four months during each scholastic year. A school district neglecting to maintain its school four months, shall be entitled to only such part of the free school fund as may be required to pay the teacher for the time actually taught. SEC. 206. There shall be a common school fund which shall consist of the poll tax (to be retained in the counties where the same is collected), and an additional sum from the general fund in the State treasury, which together shall be sufficient to maintain the common schools for the term of four months in each scholastic year. But any county or separate school district may levy an additional tax to maintain its schools for a longer time than the term of four months. The common school fund shall be distributed among the several counties and separate school districts, in pro Journal of the proceedings of the constitutional convention of the State of Mississippi, begun in the city of Jackson on August 12, 1890, and concluded November 1, 1899. Printed by authority. Jackson, Miss.: E. L. Martin, printer to the convention, 1890. The governor is elected once in four years at a general election held the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The secretary of state must be at least twenty-five years of age, and must have been a citizen of the Stato five years preceding the day of his election. portion to the number of educable children in each, to be determined from data collected through the office of the State Superintendent of Education, in the manner to be prescribed by law. SEC. 207. Separate schools shall be maintained for children of the white and colored races. SEC. 208. No religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever control any part of the school or other educational funds of this State; nor shall any funds be appropriated towards the support of any sectarian school; or to any school that at the time of receiving such appropriation is not conducted as a free school. SEC. 209. It shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide by law for the support of institutions for the education of the deaf, dumb and blind. SEC. 210. No public officer of this State, or any district, county, city or town thereof, nor any teacher or trustee of any public school, shall be interested in the sale, proceeds, or profits of ady books, apparatus, or furniture to be used in any public school in this State. Penalties shall be provided by law for the violation of this section. SEC. 211. The Legislature shall enact such laws as may be necessary to ascertain the true condition of the title to the 16th Sections of land in this State, or land granted in lieu thereof, in the Choctaw purchase, and shall provide that the Sixteenth section lands reserved for the support of township schools shall not be sold, nor shall they be leased for a longer term than ten years for a gross sum; but the Legislature may provide for the lease of any of said lands for a term not exceeding twenty-five years for a ground rental payable annually, and, in case of uncleared lands, may lease them for such short term as may be deemed proper in consideration of the improvement thereof, with right thereafter to lease for a term, or to hold on payment of ground rent. SEC. 212. The rate of interest on the fund known as the Chickasaw School Funds and other trust funds for educational purposes, for which the State is responsible, shall be fixed and remain, as long as said funds are held by the State, at six per centum per annum, from and after the close of the fiscal year A. D. 1891, and the distribution of said interest shall be made semi-annually on the first of May and November of each year. SEC. 213. The State having received and appropriated the land donated to it for the support of Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges, by the United States, and having, in furtherance of the beneficent design of Congress in granting said land, established the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi, and the Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, it is the duty of the State to sacredly carry out the conditions of the act of Congress upon the subject, approved July 2d, A. D. 1862, and the Legislature shall preserve intact the endowments to, and support, said colleges. ART. XII, SEC. 243. A uniform poll tax of two dollars, to be used in aid of the common schools, and for no other purpose, is hereby imposed on every male inhabitant of this State between the ages of twenty-one and sixty years, except persons who are deaf and dumb or blind, or who are maimed by loss of hand or foot; said tax to be a lien only upon taxable property. The Board of Supervisors of any county may, for the purpose of aiding the common schools in that county, increase the poll tax in said county, but in no case shall the entire poll tax exceed in any one year three dollars on each poll. No criminal proceedings shall be allowed to enforce the collection of the poll tax. SEC. 244. On and after the first day of January, A. D. 1892, every elector shall, in addition to the foregoing qualification, be able to read any section of the Constitution of this State; or he shall be able to understand the same when read to him, or give a reasonable interpretation thereof. CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY, APRIL 11, 1891.1 SEC. 62. The General Assembly shall not pass local or special acts provide for the management of common schools. to EDUCATION. SEC. 190. The General Assembly shall, by appropriate legislation, provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the State. SEC. 191. The bond of the Commonwealth issued in favor of the Board of Education for the sum of one million three hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars shall constitute one bond of the Commonwealth in favor of the Board of Education, and this bond and the seventy-three thousand five hundred dollars of the stock in the Bank of Kentucky, held by the Board of Education, and its proceeds, shall be held inviolate for the purpose of sustaining the system of common schools. The interest and dividends of said fund, together with any sum which may be produced by taxation or otherwise for purposes of common school education, shall be appropriated to the common schools, and to no other purpose. No sum shall be raised or collected for education other than in common schools, until the question of taxation is submitted to the legal voters, and the majority of the votes cast at said election shall be in favor of such taxation: Provided, The tax now imposed for educational purposes, and for the endowment and maintenance of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, shall remain until changed by law. SEC. 192. The General Assembly shall make provisions, by law, for the payment of the interest of said school fund. The General Assembly may make provision for the sale of the stock in the Bank of Kentucky; and in case of a sale of all or any part of said stock, the proceeds of sale shall be invested by the Sinking Fund Commissioners in other good interest-bearing stocks or bonds, which shall be subject to salo and re-investment, from time to time, in like manner, and with the same restrictions, as provided with reference to the sale of the said stock in the Bank of Kentucky. SEC. 193. Each county in the Commonwealth shall be entitled to its proportion of the school fund on its census of pupil children for each school year; and if the pro rata share of any school district be not called for after the second school year, it shall be covered into the treasury and be placed to the credit of the school fund for the general apportionment the following school year. The surplus now due the several counties shall remain a perpetual obligation against the Commonwealth for the benefit of said respective counties, for which the Commonwealth shall execute its bond, bearing interest at the rate of six per centum per annum, payable annually to the counties respectively entitled to the same, and in the proportion to which they are entitled, to be used exclusively in aid of com:non schools. SEC. 191. In distributing the school fund no distinction shall be made on account of race or color, and separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained. SEC. 195. A Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be elected by the qualified voters of the State at the same time the Governor is elected, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be qualified. His duties, salary, and qualifications shall be prescribed by law. SEC. 196. So much of any moneys as may be received by the Commonwealth from the United States under the recent act of Congress refunding the direct tax shall become a part of the school fund, and be held as provided in Section 191; but the General Assembly may authorize the use, by the Commonwealth, of the moneys so received, or any part thereof, in which event a bond shall be executed to the Board Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky adopted by the constitutional convention, April 11, 1891, and submitted to a vete of the people at the August election, 1891. Press of the Courier Job Printing Company, Louisville, Ky. |