Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

nent common school fund. Under the provisions of this same bill the state also receives 5% of the receipts from the sale of all public lands within the territory or state from June 16, 1906, to be also added to the permanent common school fund. In addition to this the state has 1,413,803 acres of lands reserved for common school purposes, the same being sections 16 and 36 in every township, and also some indemnity land granted in lieu of such sections where they are lost.

"The present appraised value of this land is seventeen million dollars in round numbers. Under the provisions of the Enabling Act, this land can be sold, the proceeds to form a part of the permanent common school fund or it can be retained and leased. The Territory has leased its lands for some years, the total receipts to date from the leasing of the common school lands having been $1,970,702.91. Of this amount $301,026.81 was received during the past year, the same being distributed to the various school districts of the Territory per capita of school population, the amount per capita for the year being $1.60. "In addition to the common school lands, the Territory has 1,372,007 acres of lands reserved for the benefit of the higher institutions of learning of the Territory. Much of this land is of a poorer character located in the grazing districts in the extreme western portion of the Territory, the appraised value of the total amount at this time being eight million dollars.

"I return herewith the sheet of questions and the advance sheet from your book with certain notations and corrections thereon. If this does not give you what information you desire I will be glad to furnish anything additional. "Very respectfully,

[blocks in formation]

"Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction of Oklahoma.

"MR. FLETCHER HARPER SWIFT,

"GUTHRIE.

"Dear Sir: Yours of July 26th came to hand during my absence from the city. Up to this time there is no established school fund except the school land fund now owned and controlled by the Territory. I have no copy of the Constitution as finally finished by the Constitutional Convention, and cannot send you a copy of the section dealing with the establishment of a school fund. The sale of these school lands under the Constitution is checked up to the legislature.

"8-6'07.

"R."

"Very truly yours,
“J. E. DYCHE.

Title.

CHAPTER XLV

OREGON

COMMON SCHOOL FUND

486

The state permanent common school fund of Oregon is officially known as the Common School Fund.484 In 1906 the Common School Fund consisted of $4,599,460.39,485 and Condition, 1906 a reservation of five hundred thousand acres (500,000) (1905) of school lands estimated to be worth $1,000,000,4 the proceeds of which when sold will be added to the principal of the fund. Of the $4,599,460.39 named above, $4,120,747.60 is invested chiefly in first mortgage loans and school district bonds; the remaining $478,712.70 is made up as follows: $305,794.37 certificates of sale of school lands; $154,418.33 certificates of sale of land acquired by deed or foreclosure, unsold farms acquired by deed or foreclosure $18,500.485 The annual revenue amounts (1906) to $281,060.86.487 In 1905 the revenue derived from the Common School Fund was $272,352.74 which is approximately thirteen and five-tenths per cent (.1353) of the total common school revenue for that year, $2,012,718.488

The Common School Fund was established by the first constitution adopted by the state and which became effective upon her admission into the Union in 1859.484 The original Origin capital of the fund consisted of 3,829,706 acres of school lands granted by the United States Government, of which 3,329,706 acres were the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in each township, and the remaining 500,000 acres 484 were lands received under the 1841 Act of Congress.489

484 Constitution of Oregon, Art. VIII, Sec. 2.

485 Oregon State Treasurer's Report, 1905-06, p. 106.

496 Data furnished Nov. 16, 1906, by C. S. Moore, Oregon State Treasurer.

487 Oregon State Treasurer's Report, 1905-06, p. 32.

488 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1905, Vol. I, p. 306.

489 Report of State Supt. of Public Instruction of Oregon, 1880, p. 64, gives the

Sources of
Increase

484

The sources from which the principal of the Common School Fund may be increased are as follows: (1) the proceeds of the sale of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of every township in the state, or of any lands selected in lieu thereof; 496 (2) the proceeds of the sale of the five hundred thousand acres of land to which the state is entitled by the provisions of an act of Congress, approved September 4, 496 1841; (3) proceeds of property escheating or forfeited to the state; (4) moneys paid as exemption for military duty; 44 (5) proceeds of gifts, devises, bequests made by any person to the state for common school purposes; 484 (6) proceeds of all property granted to the state when purposes are not stated; 484 (7) five per cent of the net proceeds of the sales 484 of all federal public lands; (8) ten per cent of all proceeds of swamp lands; 400 (9) the proceeds of the sale of tide-lands or sand islands within the state; 496 (10) fines imposed for violation of laws regulating the practice of medicine.496 Whether the five per cent derived from proceeds of sales of public lands and the ten per cent of the proceeds of the sales of swamp lands are added to the principal of the Common School Fund as provided for by the constitution, I have been unable to determine. The State Treasurer, in naming the sources from which this fund is derived, omits these two,496 and in the same report states that the proceeds of these lands are devoted to other objects; but he may have considered it unnecessary to speak of these per cent funds.

The State Treasurer estimates that the total loss sustained by the Common School Fund from the time of its establishment to the

Loss

present does not exceed $20,000. This has been. caused chiefly by unwise loans on farm property and the depreciation in value of security during the depression of 1893-98. One instance of such loss might be cited. $10,000 was

total area of school lands originally devoted to the Common School Fund as 3,377,777 acres.

490 School Laws of Oregon, compiled by Supt. of Public Instruction, 1897, p. 47, Title XIII, Sec. 21.

496 Oregon State Treasurer's Report, 1905-06, p. 31.

loaned to Baker City Academy. This property was taken up and disposed of for $1,500 to Baker City School District making a total loss of $8,500.486

Management

The Common School Fund is managed by a board of commissioners of school and university lands, composed of the Governor, Secretary of State, and State Treasurer. It is loaned by them at not less than seven per cent.491 The revenue is distributed by the board of commissioners among the counties upon the basis of the total county school population (four to twenty years).491

Apportionment

The revenue of the Common School Fund cannot be used to pay for school supplies or buildings or completing or seating schoolhouses ready for occupancy.492 The objects to Objects which it may be applied are not specified: "Interest of the Common School Fund shall be so exclusively applied to the support and maintenance of common schools for the purchase of suitable libraries and apparatus." *

Conditions of
Participation

[ocr errors]

In order to share in the revenue of the Common School Fund, a district must annually report to the county superintendent 493 and maintain a school one-fourth of the school year (sixty days or twelve school weeks 494). The directors of a district must require a bond of district clerk not less than double the probable amount of all school moneys which shall come to his hand.495

* Compare, Idaho, foot-note 122a.

491 School Laws of Oregon, compiled by Supt. of Public Instruction, 1897, p. 49, Sec. 2.

[blocks in formation]

Present Condition, Lost

CHAPTER XLVI

PENNSYLVANIA

COMMON SCHOOL FUND

Pennsylvania possesses no state permanent common school fund. The legislature provided for the establishment of such a fund in 1831,497 three years before it provided for a state system of public schools. Mayo states that in 1834 the fund amounted to over one and one-half million dollars ($1,550,000),498 but the entire fund appears to have been lost in less than forty years, for the school reports in 1870 and 1872 state that Pennsylvania has no school fund like many of her sister states, but derives all her moneys for public schools from taxation.49 Section 44 of Pennsylvania's constitution of 1776 provided that "a school or schools shall be established in each county by the legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters paid by the public as may enable them to instruct youth at low prices." 500

Establishment of Free

Public Schools

Despite this early constitutional provision, not until 1834 was an act providing for a general system of common schools passed.501 However, this law was largely ineffective, and the real foundation of the state system of schools is a law passed in 1836.502 The laws of 1834 and 1836 left the establishment of public schools to the

497 Act passed Apr. 2, 1831, quoted in full by James Pyle Wickersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, pp. 292–293.

408 A. D. Mayo, The American Common School, etc., Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1895–96, pp. 261, 262.

499 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1870, p. 270; 1872, p. 288.

500 B. A. Hinsdale, Educational Documents, Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1892-93, p. 1314.

501 J. P. Wickersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, pp. 290–316. 502 Ibid., p. 343.

« AnteriorContinuar »