CHAPTER XX ILLINOIS TOWNSHIP FUND SCHOOL FUND PROPER SURPLUS REVENUE FUND COUNTY SCHOOL FUND Titles. Illinois uses the term common school fund to include the total proceeds of (1) the state school tax; (2) interest Condition, 1905 on the School Fund Proper; (3) interest on the Surplus Revenue Fund.123 Illinois possesses in all seven permanent school funds; only four of these, however, are common school funds, the other three being devoted to higher education. The permanent common school funds of the state are divided into two classes: first, trust funds, accumulations of moneys granted by the United States or of the proceeds of the sales of lands granted by the same power; second, moneys which the state has set apart by law for the use of common schools. These funds are all alike in that the income only may be expended. The common school funds of this first class are: (1) the Township Fund and (2) the School Fund Proper; of the second class, (3) the Surplus Revenue Fund and (4) the County School Fund.124 The following table shows the condition and relative importance of these funds in 1905: $849,762.03 Total of all permanent common school funds $16,605,333.70 123 School Laws of Ill., 1903, p. 126, Sec. 1. 124 Ill. School Report, 1881-82, p. cxx. 125 Ill. School Report, 1904-06, p. 164. 128 From statement, Sept. 1, 1906, received from F. G. Blair, Ill. State Supt. of Public Instruction. Illinois' total receipts for common schools in 1905 derived from all sources, excluding balance from previous year, amounted to $23,999,188.55,128 of which; consequently, approximately three and one-half per cent (.035*) was interest or income of permanent common school funds. The School Fund Proper and Surplus Revenue Fund, amounting together to $948,954.99, were long ago borrowed by the state which used them for its own purposes and pays annual interest thereon at the rate of six per cent.129 These funds may, in effect, be regarded as a permanent state debt. An act of the legislature approved May 17, 1907, merged the County School Fund with the Township Fund. The County Superintendent of Schools was directed to apportion and distribute the principal of the County Fund to the townships and parts of townships in his county, the said principal thereupon to be added to the principal of the Township Fund. Illinois provided for the establishment of the Township Funds in the year 1818 in the ordinance accompanying her first constitution.130 The same ordinance provided that five Origin per cent of the net proceeds of the sales of public lands in Illinois, sold by Congress after January 1, 1819, should be disposed of as follows: two per cent to be used in making roads leading to the state, three per cent for the encouragement of learning "one sixth of which shall be exclusively bestowed on a college or university." 130 Subsequent legislation established a state permanent school fund known as the School Fund Proper, consisting of this three per cent of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands in the state, one-sixth part excepted.131 The first payment on this three per cent fund was made December 27, 1821.129 The original capital of the Township Funds consisted of 985,066 acres of sixteenth section lands granted by Congress April 18, 1818,10 the same being section number sixteen in each township throughout * Computed. 128 Ill. School Report, 1904-06, p. 159. 129 Ill. School Report, 1881-82, pp. cxxxvii, cxliii. 130 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1892-93, II, p. 1320. 131 Ill. School Report, 1898-1900, p. 24. the state. The Surplus Revenue Fund was established as a permanent common school fund or deposit by an act of legislature March 4, 1837, which resulted in setting aside, as a permanent fund for common schools, $335,592.32 out of a total of $477,919.24 received by Illinois as this state's share of the distribution of the United States Surplus Revenue of 1837.* The County Funds were provided for by section 5 of an act passed February 7, 1835,132 which provided that teachers should not County receive from the public school fund revenue more ... than half the amount due them for services rendered the preceding year, and that the sum reserved should constitute a new permanent fund to be known as the County School Fund.131 This act did not, as might appear, withhold from the teachers any portion of their wages. It "merely provided that of the amount earned by the teachers (in each county) only one-half should be paid from the interest on permanent state funds. The other half was paid partly from the income . . . of the township and the remainder .. by the tax payers of the district. When the amount which a county was entitled (to receive from the state) exceeded half the amount due the teachers, such surplus was" (set apart as a principal of a county permanent common school fund),132a In 1881, seventy of the one hundred and two counties in the state possessed County Funds. These funds "have received many considerable additions from other sources chiefly . . . from the proceeds of sales of swamp lands." 129 Borrowed by State "An act passed in 1829 provided that the Governor should borrow the School Fund (Proper) on account of the state, at the rate of six per cent interest, the interest to be added to the principal at the end of every year until the money should be refunded. . . . By an Act of Legislature passed February 7, 1835, it was ordered that the interest accrued upon the *See Part I, Chap. III for an account of the Surplus Revenue. 132 "An act to provide for the distribution and application of the interest on School, College and Seminary Funds," Ill. Laws, 1834-35, pp. 22-24; Ill. School Report, 1881-82, p. cxliii. 132a Extract from letter, July 12, 1907, received from F. G. Blair, Ill. State Supt. of Public Instruction. same." 133 fund should be added to the principal and remain a part of the As was said at the beginning of this account, both the School Fund and the Surplus Revenue School Fund have been used by the state. "This (School Fund Proper) represents not a fund held by this state, but an amount of money which the state received in trust and used for its own purposes and upon which it has pledged itself by public act to pay interest at . . . six per cent until it refunds the money." " 134 The same is true of the Surplus Revenue Fund; 135 the principal was borrowed by the state and exhausted in extravagant public improvements. It exists to-day only as an account or credit fund.* The only means of increasing the principal of the Township Funds appears to be the sale of school land, chiefly sixteenth section land.136 The proceeds of the sales of swamp lands are the chief source of increasing the Means of principal of the County School Funds.137 The township and county funds are managed by the treasurers 138 of the respective townships and the County Superintendent of Schools,139 "but the title to these Management funds is vested in the State." 126 The revenue of the Township and County School Funds is apportioned by the County Superintendent of Schools among the townships in proportion to the number of children Apportionment under twenty-one years of age.1 140 No teacher can receive any share of any public fund who had not at the time of entering upon the duties of teaching a certificate * See Part. I, Chaps. I and III. Also E. G. Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 60, 61. 133 Ill. School Report, 1881-82, p. xxxvi. 134 Ibid., p. cxxxvii. 135 Ibid., p. cxlii. 138 School Laws of Ill., 1903, Art. 12, Sec. 16. 137 Ill. School Report, 1881-82, p. cxliii. But the State Superintendent of Public Instruction writes, "County Boards are not authorized to add proceeds derived from sale of swamp lands to the principal of county funds," cf. foot-note 124. 138 School Laws of Ill., 1903, Art. III, Sec. 34. 139 Ibid., p. 17, Art. II, Sec. 21, 140 Ibid., Sec. XX. Conditions of of qualification as required by law.141 Certain returns must be submitted and in some cases bonds executed and filed by school officers before a township, district or officer can receive any part of the public school revenue.142 But the penalties for failure to fulfil these conditions are imposed upon the officers or teachers in their individual capacity, so that although the Common School Fund may be withheld, it apparently need never be forfeited.143 141 Ibid., p. 98, Sec. 4. 142 Ibid., p. 98, Sec. 5. 143 Ibid., p. 17, Sec. 18; p. 143, Secs. 9, 10. |