CHAPTER XXVI LOUISIANA Title. FREE SCHOOL FUND The permanent common school fund of Louisiana, officially known as the Free School Fund,232 consists of three parts: first, $1,130,867, declared by the constitution to be a Condition, 1905 perpetual state debt due to the Free School Fund,232 on which the state pays four per cent interest; second, consolidated and constitutional bonds, which constitute the only part of the principal that has a real existence and which represent the proceeds of the sales of sixteenth section school lands made since January 1, 1880, and amounting in 1895 to $243,930; 233 third, unsold common school lands, the area of which it has not been possible to ascertain.233 That portion of the fund represented by the state debt exists nowhere except on the books of the state. Its four per cent revenue was paid, 1879-98, out of the education tax,234 and from 1898 to the present (1902) out of the interest tax fund,235 i. e., state taxes. In 1905 the principal of the Free School Fund, including the perpetual four per cent loan, amounted to $1,759,386.76.233a The interest on the principal amounted to $61,793.40 233a and the rent of school lands amounted to $19,618.55,233 making a total income from the Free School Fund of $81,411.95. The total receipts from all sources for common schools this same year amounted to $2,218,912.57,233a of which, therefore, approximately three and seven-tenths per cent (.037) was a 232 Constitution of Louisiana, 1898, Art. 257; Compilation of Laws of La. Relating to Free Public Schools, 1904, p. 18. 233 Report La. State Supt. of Public Education, 1894–95, p. iv. 233a Statements Sept. 6, 1906, and July 11, 1907, received from J. B. Aswell, La. State Supt. of Public Education. 254 U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1898, No. 1, p. 104. 235 Report La. State Supt. of Public Education, 1898–99, p. 7. derived from the interest on the Free School Fund and the rent of common school land. แ Louisiana received from the United States as the result of Congressional lands grant in the years 1806 and 1843, 786,044 acres of sixteenth section lands for the use of common Origin schools.10 To this Congress added (September 6, 1841) a grant of ten per cent (.10) of the proceeds of the sale of all federal lands to be applied to the school fund.236 A new constitution adopted 1845 made general provision for the establishment of a perpetual fund on which the state shall pay an annual interest of six per cent." 237 The constitution provided that this perpetual fund should be held as a loan by the state which should pay annual interest of six per cent thereon; "which interest, together with all the rents of unsold (school) lands shall be appropriated to the support of such schools, and this appropriation shall remain inviolable.” The sources which the constitution devoted to the perpetual school fund were as follows: (1) the proceeds of all school lands previously granted to the state by the United States; (2) proceeds of all lands hereafter granted or bequeathed to the state not expressly granted or given for some other purpose; (3) proceeds of intestate estates escheating to the state.237 By the constitution adopted in 1852 (Title VIII, Art. 137) these sources of the "perpetual school fund" were continued and the interest on the state's share of the United States Surplus Revenue of 1837 was joined with the income of the Perpetual School Fund. On March 15, 1855, the establishment of the Free School Fund was completed by an act which provided that (1) the proceeds of sale of school lands, except sixteenth section land; (2) ten per cent net proceeds of estates of deceased persons escheating to the state; (3) ten per cent of proceeds of sales of United States lands to which state is entitled shall be and remain a perpetual fund to be called the Free School Fund. On this fund the state shall pay an annual interest of six per cent, 236 U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1898, No. 1, p. 69. 237 Constitution of La., 1845, Title VII, Art. 135; P. L. Phillips, La. Revised Statutes, 1856, also quoted in Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1892-93, II, p. 1329. which interest, together with the interest of Louisiana's share of the United States Surplus Revenue, $477,919.14, and with the rents of all unsold lands, except sixteenth section lands, shall be appropriated for the support of public schools in this state.238 It should be noted here that the state had spent every dollar of its surplus revenue before 1840 in appropriations, so that in devoting this fund to schools it was merely establishing a credit fund, not a productive resource.239 It was decided in Louisiana that townships, not the state, owned the sixteenth section lands. Some gave up these lands to the state and the proceeds became a part of the Free School Fund.240 Others held them, still possess them (1898) and derive an appreciable revenue from them. Others have lost all record of them.234 As a result of the Civil War, "in a few years the public debt of Louisiana was increased by the sum of $40,000,000.❞ 241 In 1872 Loss the Government sold at public auction the whole Free School Fund which had been invested in state bonds and which "amounted to more than $1,000,000.❞ 242 The constitution of 1879 placed the Free School Fund among the perpetual debts of the state, but reduced the interest from six to four per cent and declared that this interest as well as the interest on the Seminary, Agricultural, and Mechanical funds should be paid not out of the general revenue of the state, but out of the tax (annual appropriation) collected for pupils' education.243 "This was a wholesale robbing 'of Peter to pay Paul.'" Provision is made for increasing the principal of the Free School Fund from the following sources: (1) the proceeds of all lands heretofore granted by the United States to the state for the use or support of schools, except the sixteenth sections (which belong 238 U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1898, No. 1, p. 103, taken from Bureau School Laws, p. 47, Art. CVIII. 239 Bourne, Edward G., History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 68, 69. Consult Part I, Chap. III, for an account of the U. S. Surplus Revenue Fund. 240 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1895–96, I, p. 312. 241 Ibid., 1894-95, II, p. 1304. 242 Ibid., II, p. 1303. 243 Constitution of La., 1879, Art. 233. Sources of to the townships); (2) the proceeds of all lands heretofore granted or bequeathed to the state when no other purpose is stated in grant or bequest; (3) ten per cent of the net proceeds of sales of public lands accruing to this state under act of Congress approved September 4, 1841; (4) proceeds of intestate estates escheating to the state; (5) gifts; (6) appropriations by legislature; (7) inheritance tax; 243a (8) proceeds of Dried Lake Lands." 243a To this revenue of the Free School Fund is added that of (1) the Trust Fund (United States Surplus Revenue Deposit of 1837); (2) rent of all unsold school lands except that of sixteenth section land. The Free School Fund is borrowed by the state which pays an annual interest on it of four per cent.244 The townships control the sixteenth section lands belonging to each. They Management may lease or sell them. In the latter case the proceeds may be paid into the State Treasury and the state will, according as the township votes, either pay to the township an annual interest or add the interest as an accumulated fund to the credit of the township until called for.245 The revenue of the funds appropriated by the General Assembly for the support of the public schools of the state is apportioned by the Superintendent of Public Education in Apportionment February, June, and November among the parishes of the state upon the basis of school population (six to eighteen years 246). No provision is made by the laws regarding the objects to which the revenue of the Free School Fund shall be applied, nor regarding any conditions that must be fulfilled by the parishes in order to receive their respective share.* Objects. Conditions of * See Idaho, foot-note 122a. 243a Data furnished Sept. 6, 1906, by J. B. Aswell, State Supt. of Public Education. Cf. Compilation of Laws of La. Relating to Free Public Schools, 1904, p. 61, Art. 45. 244 Revised Statutes of La., 1904, Sec. 2957; Compilation of Laws of La. Relating to Free Public Schools, 1904, p. 60. 245 Ibid., Sec. 2936; Compilation of Laws of La. Relating to Free Public Schools, 1904, p. 56. 246 Compilation of Laws of La. Relating to Free Public Schools, 1904, p. 49. CHAPTER XXVII MAINE Title. PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND The official title of the permanent common school fund of Maine is Permanent School Fund.247 It is sometimes called the State School Fund to distinguish it from "the School Fund proper," the latter term being used to include the aggregate revenue received from (1) local funds, (2) the Permanent School Fund, and (3) town taxation.248 The Permanent School Fund has never yielded any considerable portion of the total of Maine's annual school revenue. Between 1851, the first year of its distribution, and 1902, the per cent it contributed toward the total expenditure ranged from .052 (1851)252 to .014+ (1902),252 with an average of .045.252 In 1905 the principal of the fund amounted to $442,757 249 and the annual interest therefrom to $26,565,249 approximately one and two hundredths per cent (.01018) 252 of $2,607,783.87,249 the total public school revenue for 1905, derived from all sources. The Permanent School Fund of Maine may be termed a credit fund, for "the state used the money received for the credit of the Permanent School Fund and pays six per cent for its use." 250 The importance of this fund, therefore, lies not in the largeness of its contribution in the past nor in the present, but rather in the unifying effect it has had on the Maine school system as a whole. It interests us as a 247 Laws of Me. Relating to Public Schools, compiled 1905, p. 39, Sec. 122. 248 Me. School Report, 1903, App. p. 62. 249 Statement received Nov. 8, 1906, from Edward Wiggin, Secretary Dept. of Public Instruction. 250 Extract from personal letter from State Treasurer, Oct. 28, 1904. 252 Computed from data taken from state and federal school reports and from statements received from Maine officials. |