longer; 100% state aid will be granted to no (high or rural graded) school (4) making an average attendance of less than fifty pupils; (5) unless the building in which the school is taught is owned by school authorities in fee simple and contains at least two good recitation rooms; (6) after July 1, 1904, unless every teacher therein holds a legal and unexpired certificate issued in Florida; that of the principal of a high school must be of such a grade as to show that he himself is qualified to teach any subject in the Standard Course of Study; that of a principal of a rural graded school shall be at least a first grade certificate.100 b 100b Regulations of the State Board of Education regarding high schools and rural graded schools; Florida State Supt. of Public Instruction, Report, 1904, Appendix C, pp. 231, 233. Title. Present CHAPTER XVIII GEORGIA Georgia has at present no permanent common school fund.101 The term common school fund is applied to the total state public school revenue derived from fourteen different sources,102 namely: (1) direct tax levy; (2) poll tax; (3) half rental of Western & Atlantic R. R.; (4) liquor tax; (5) net hire of convicts; net fees for inspection (6) of fertilizers, (7) of oils; (8) show taxes; (9) dividends of Georgia R. R. stock; (10) rental of oyster lands; (11) dividends from state bank stock; (12) gifts, endowments, devises, and bequests to the State Board of Education; (13) commutation tax for military service; (14) animal tax.102 It is sometimes erroneously stated that Georgia has a permanent common school fund composed of "half the Western & Atlantic R. R., and some stock of the Georgia R. R." (Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1902, I, xcii), but the above items numbered 3, 9, 10, and 11 do not constitute a permanent school fund, i. e., the law does not set them apart as permanent or inviolable sources, the revenue of which shall never be appropriated for any purpose other than schools. In the year 1900-01, of all the invested sources, items 3 and 9 alone contributed to the common school fund,103 the former $210,006,103 and the latter $2,046,103 making a total of $212,052. This would represent the interest on a principal of $3,534,200 at six per cent. The total public school revenue for 1901 was $2,011,753,104 of which accordingly approximately ten and five-tenths per cent (.1054*) * Computed. 104 101 Letter received from W. B. Merritt, Ga. School Commissioner, Jan. 4, 1905. 102 Ga. School Commissioner's Report, 1903, p. 404, also School Law, 1903, Sec. 38. 103 Report Ga. Controller, General 1901, p. 39. 104 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1901, I, lxxxvii. was derived from invested state capital, but not from permanent invested funds. The following table shows the sources and the amount derived from each for the year 1905: Origin. Common School Section 54 of the constitution of 1777 provided that free schools should be erected in each county and supported at the expense of the state. As early as 1783 the Governor of Georgia was empowered to grant one thousand acres of land for the establishment of free schools in each county.105 Grants of land were given to academies, many of which were actually established, but nothing further was done for free schools after 1783 until 1817.105, 107 In that year, 1817, Georgia provided for a permanent common school fund by an Act passed December 18, which “set apart and appropriated for the future establishment and support of free schools throughout the state" $250,000, and directed the governor "so soon as a favorable opportunity may occur, to invest the above sum in bank or other profitable stock." 106 The following are some of the sources which contributed to the growth of the fund thus established; in 1818 by the Land Lottery Act, lots Nos. 10 105 Watkin's Digest of Laws of Ga., p. 15; U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 4, 1888, p. 17. 106 Prince's (1836) Digest of Laws of Ga., p. 18; see also U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1888, II, 24-34. 107 "We have no evidence that this legislation was carried out," Common School System of Georgia, by O. A. Thaxton, Columbia U. M. A. Thesis, 1904 (unpublished), p. 19. and 100 in each surveyor's district were set apart and reserved for the benefit of schools,106 and by subsequent legislation their proceeds were made a part of the Permanent School Fund. An Act passed December 21, 1821, provided for the permanent investment of the fund, already accumulated, and of $500,000 added by this act.108 It bestowed upon the total fund the title "School Fund," and drew a distinction between the Free School and the Academy Funds by providing that the interest on one-half of the $500,000 added by this act should be applied to the permanent endowment of county academies, and the revenue of the other half should be applied to the encouragement of free schools. This distinction led the latter fund to be spoken of generally as the Poor School Fund. By an act passed December 23, 1836, Georgia set apart "as a permanent free school and education fund" $350,000,109 onethird of her share of the United States Surplus Revenue distributed in 1837.* In 1840 all state appropriations were merged in a Free School Fund.109, 110 The total Free School Fund in 1840 may be roughly estimated as follows: appropriation 1817, $250,000; appropriation, 1821, $500,000; Surplus Revenue, 1837, $350,000; total Loss 109 (not including proceeds of land grants of 1818), $1,100,000. The annual revenue of this fund in 1836, amounted to $40,000,110 but owing to the stigma of the badge of pauperism attached to receiving it, it was rejected with contempt." It seems probable that little, if any, of the interest on the Surplus Revenue was ever used for supporting schools. It appears to have been paid out for general state expenses.112 In 1845 only fifty-three out of ninety-three counties applied for their share.110 The total distribution, 1817-60 (forty-three years) amounted to $1,290,000,11 or an average of $30,000 annually. Up to 1860 the revenue was *See Part I, Chapter III. 108 Prince's Digest of the Laws of Georgia (1836), p. 19. 110 109 United States Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 4, 1888, P. 26. 110 Ibid., p. 27, also Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1895-96, I, 295. 112 E. G. Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 56, 59, 122. therefore often rejected, and oftentimes diverted from its legitimate use. All permanent common school funds were lost during the Civil War, 1860-65.111 111 O. A. Thaxton's unpublished Report on School Funds in Georgia, given in Seminary, History of Education, Columbia University, 1903-04; U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1888, No. 5, II, p. 26; Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1875, p. 72. |