4 Several sources of revenue. 1889 2,488,6755 1863 Notes 4 and 28 1848 1890 1,485,649 29 3,458,010 Note 13 5 Approximate. $839,022 Notes 4 and 13 13 Includes only moneys actually in treasury; such sources as per centum grants, and proceeds of escheated estates are not included in this column. The entire sum was West Virginia's 20 Sixteenth section lands and 500,000 acres of internal improvement lands granted under congressional act of 1841. 30 Largely a permanent state debt. Cf. note m. CHAPTER V MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC PERMANENT COMMON SCHOOL FUNDS Question of State Management The question whether the Permanent Common School Fund was owned and should be managed by the state or by smaller units such as towns and counties was easily settled in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and other states where the fund was created by an act of the legislature and did not arise from the proceeds of the sale of township lands. But in states to which had been granted federal lands for schools, the question at once arose whether these lands belonged to the township or to the state, and if to the township, to what extent the state could supervise or control the management. The first funds of sixteenth-section-lands origin were regarded as belonging to the townships and managed by the townships or the state or county for the township. However, a tendency to regard the state as the lawful owner and manager soon appeared and eventually triumphed. Every state, since the admission of Minnesota in 1858, has devoted its township lands to a public, permanent, state-controlled school fund. Four distinct stages are evident in the transition from township to state management. In the first stage the lands are regarded as the property of the township in which they are located and the funds derived from them are State Management managed by the respective townships. Four Stages in the Transition from Township to In the second stage township ownership continues, but the funds are managed for the respective townships by the several counties in which the townships lie. In this stage the township funds are kept separate, and each township receives an income proportionate to the fund intrusted by it to the county. The third stage is like the second in most respects except that the state, instead of the county, manages the funds for the townships. In the fourth stage, the township lands are declared to belong to the state. The state manages the lands, creates a fund derived from their proceeds, and distributes the income of this fund among the counties, townships, or districts in proportion to their school population, average attendance or upon some other general basis deemed just and equitable. In this as in other evolutionary processes the stages do not appear in chronological order. Thus, the first state to receive a grant of the sixteenth section lands, Ohio, represents the third stage. Having described the stages, it is now possible to discuss them in the order in which they arose. Each of the following states regarded, and continues to-day to regard the sections lying within the townships as belonging to the same, and administers the fund Township Ownership derived therefrom as township funds: Ohio, admitted in 1802.262 Illinois, admitted in 1812.264 Indiana, admitted in 1816.263 Alabama, admitted in 1819.265 Management. Ohio The Enabling Act of Ohio, quoted in Chapter III, reads in part, "And be it further enacted, . . . that the section numbered sixTownship Owner- teen in every township . . . shall be granted to ship and State the inhabitants of such township for the use of schools." This form of grant unquestionably makes the township the true owners of the school lands, but an Act of Congress passed March 3, 1803, granting school lands for 262 School Laws of Ohio, 1898, compiled by State Commissioner of Common Schools. 263 Report Ind. Supt. of Public Instruction, 1898, p. 60. 264 School Laws of Ill., 1903, Art. III, Sec. 34. 265 Data furnished Jan. 8, 1907, by I. W. Hill, Ala. State Supt. of Education. The state holds these funds in trust for the townships. Cf. account given in Part II; also Ala. School Law, 1895, Chap. 4, Sec. 1007. 266 Compilation of laws of La. relating to Free Public Schools, 1904, Secs. 2957, 2963, pp. 56, 60. 207 Mo. School Law, 1903, p. 57, Sec. 9829. portions of Ohio unprovided for in the Enabling Act, vested in trust in the legislature all lands appropriated by the United States for the support of schools.268 The legislature doubted its right to sell the school lands and passed an act to lease them for ninety-nine years. This proved unsatisfactory and application was made to Congress for permission to sell the school lands. Congress made no reply to this request. "The legislature felt the necessity of doing something, and accordingly in January, 1827, passed an act for the sale of the school lands, with such conditions as avoided any question of right as regards the people for whose benefit the lands were held. It was provided, first, that the sale of section sixteen, in the original surveys, should be voted on by the people of the township, and the sale made if they decided so; second, the lands were to be appraised and not sold below the appraisement; third, on full payment of the money, a deed in fee simple was to be made by the state. The same policy was adopted in reference to all the school lands.” 269 "The money derived from the sale of school lands was used for other purposes (than schools). As such moneys came into the state treasury they were accredited to the original township in which the lands lay, and deposited in a so-called sinking fund. The interest on that amount then goes annually to the school districts located all or partly in the original township. The interest is raised by state levy. The rent of unsold school lands is added to the annual revenue." 270 Mississippi, admitted in 1817, has pursued a twofold policy. The state holds in trust for the Chickasaw counties, a fund on which it pays annual interest to these counties, keeping a separate account for each township.271 The sixteenth section lands belonging to the Chocktaw counties were in some cases sold outright prior to 1833, and the proceeds eventually lost. Others were leased for a term of ninety-nine years.2 272 Alabama followed a policy similar to that pursued by Ohio by 268 Statutes at Large, Vol. II, p. 225. 269"Ed. Land Policy of the U. S.," Barnard Am. Journal of Ed., Vol. 28, pp. 936, 937. 270 School Laws, compiled by State Commissioner of Common Schools, 1898, Sec. 3953. 271 Report Miss. State Supt. Ed., 1894-95, p. 24; School Laws of Miss., 1896, p. 41, Sec. 4150. 272 Report Miss. State Supt. Ed., 1871, p. 37. providing in 1828 that the sixteenth section lands granted by Congress should be sold and the proceeds paid into the state treasury, the state becoming a trustee of the funds and liable to the districts and townships for the interest on the principal at six per cent. The proceeds of the sixteenth section lands when sold are placed to the credit of the township from which they were received.265 In Illinois the funds derived from the proceeds of the sales of the sixteenth section lands are managed by the respective townships, the township treasurer being the custodian of the fund,264 but the school fund proper and the title to these townships fund is vested in the state.273 Tennessee appears to have been one of the first states which merged the proceeds of the sales of the school lands granted by the Evolution of State federal Government into a public permanent com Management in Tennessee 1806-1827 mon school fund, owned and managed by the state. It was noted in Chapter III that although Tennessee was the first state in which the federal Government owned lands to be admitted into the Union, no school lands were granted it until 1806, ten years after its admission.* In the case of Ohio the sixteenth section was definitely located by the United States survey system and given to the inhabitants of the township in which it lay. But Tennessee had not been covered by the congressional survey system, therefore, townships were not yet surveyed in a large part of the state and the school sections granted by Congress could not be located accurately. The result was that the congressional grant of 1806 gave Tennessee the public lands lying within the state, on which the Indian title had been extinguished and directed that "The state of Tennessee shall, moreover, in issuing grants and perfecting titles locate 640 acres to every square mile in the territory hereby ceded where existing claims will allow the same, which shall be appropriated for the use of schools for the instruction of children forever." 274 * Chapter III, p. 53. 273 Statement to F. H. Swift, Sept. 1, 1906, from F. G. Blair, Ill. Supt. of Public Instruction. 274 T. P. Thomas, The Public School System of Tennessee, U. S. Bureau of Ed., Circular of Information, No. 5, 1893, pp. 282-283. |