option of the district, but in 1848 a law was enacted making the maintenance of free public schools compulsory for the entire state.502 Origin and As early as 1786 Pennsylvania took steps toward establishing a permanent common school fund. On April 7th of that year an act was approved entitled, "An Act for the present relief and future endowment of Dickinson College in the Borough of Carlisle and County of Cumberland in this State, and for reserving part of the unappropriated lands belonging to the State, as a fund for the endowment of public schools agreeably to the forty-fourth section of the Constitution of this Commonwealth." 503 Section VII of this act reads as follows: "Sec. VII. It is therefore enacted, etc., that sixty thousand acres of land, part of the unappropriated lands belonging to the State, be and they are hereby reserved and appropriated for the sole and express purpose of endowing public schools in the different counties of this State, agreeably to the said forty-fourth section of the Constitution.” 503 Sections VIII, IX, and X made further provisions relative to surveying the lands and setting apart the proceeds of the sales as a permanent fund.504 But the public schools never received any benefit from the land set apart by this act in their behalf; it was probably given subsequently to county academies.503 In 1821 Governor Hiester in his message urged the legislature to consider the question of uniting with others of the original states in demanding of the federal Government an equitable proportion of the public lands for the support of schools.505 In 1824 Governor Schulze spoke as follows: "I would respectfully suggest whether an annual sum specially appropriated for that purpose, would not in a few years raise a fund equal to the diffusion of the elements of education among the children of the republic." 505 In 1827 a bill "to provide a fund in support of a General System of Education in Pennsylvania" was passed by the state senate but 503 Ibid., p. 257. 504 Ibid., pp. 257, 258. 505 Ibid., p. 268. was defeated in the house.506 "But," in the words of Wickersham, "the bread thus cast upon the waters returned in a few years in the following Act, passed on the second of April, 1831." The provisions of this Act may be summarized briefly by saying that it provided that the proceeds of the sales of certain public lands be set apart as a permanent common school fund, to be managed by a board of commissioners, the fund to accumulate until its annual income should amount to $100,000, after which the interest was to be distributed among the school units of the state. The Act reads as follows: 506 "Sec. I. That there shall be and there hereby is established a fund, to be denominated a Common School Fund, and the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the Auditor General and the Secretary of the Land Office shall be commissioners thereof, who, or a majority of them, in addition to the duties they now perform, shall receive and manage such moneys and other things as shall pertain to such fund, in the most advantageous manner, and shall receive and hold to the use of said fund, all such gifts, grants and donations as may be made; and that said commissioners shall keep a correct record of their proceedings, which, together with all papers and documents relative to said fund, shall be kept and preserved in the office of the Auditor General. "Sec. II. That from and after the passage of this Act, all moneys due and owing this Commonwealth by the holders of all unpatented lands; also all moneys secured to the Commonwealth by mortgages or liens on land for the purchase money of the same; also all moneys paid to the State Treasurer on any application hereafter entered, or any warrant hereafter granted for land, as also fees received in the land office, as well as all moneys received in pursuance of the provisions of the fourth section of an Act entitled 'An Act to increase the county rates and levies for the use of the Commonwealth,' approved the twenty-fifth day of March, 1831, be and the same are hereby transferred and assigned to the Common School Fund; and that at the expiration of twelve months after the passage of this Act, and regularly at the expiration of every twelve months thereafter, the State Treasurer shall report to the said commissioners the amount of money thus received by him during the twelve months last preceding, together with a certificate of the amount thereof, and that the same is held by the Commonwealth for the use of the Common School Fund, at an interest of five per cent. "Sec. III. That the interest of the moneys belonging to said fund shall be added to the principal as it becomes due, and the whole amount thereof shall be held by the Commonwealth, and remain subject to the provisions of an 506 Ibid., pp. 292, 293. Act entitled, 'An Act relative to the Pennsylvania canal and railroad,' approved the twenty-second of April, 1829, until the interest thereof shall amount to the sum of $100,000 annually, after which the interest shall be annually distributed and applied to the support of common schools throughout this commonwealth, in such a manner as shall hereafter be provided by law.” It was estimated that the Common School Fund would amount to $2,000,000 in ten years. The preamble of "An Act to establish a general system of education by common schools" states that on April 4, 1835, the School Fund will amount to $546,563.72." 507 Mayo asserts, as was stated in the opening paragraph of this account, that in 1834 the fund amounted to $1,550,000.498 The Act of 1834 (section nineteen), provided that $75,000 be appropriated annually for public schools from the income of the Common School Fund until the income should amount to $100,000, as provided by the Act of 1831.508 United States Revenue, 1837 Pennsylvania received $2,867,514.78 from the United States Government 509 as this state's share of the surplus revenue distribution of 1837.* Bourne estimates that about $800,000 of this amount was devoted to the aid of public schools; 510 $500,000 of this sum was set apart as a fund "to be applied by the several districts either for buildings, repairing or purchasing school-houses, or for education, as they may deem best." 511 It does not appear that this sum was set apart as a permanent fund, but rather that the principal was expended prior to 1840.510 * For a full account of the surplus revenue distribution consult Part I, Chap. III. 507 Ibid., p. 313. 508 Ibid., p. 316. 509 E. G. Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, p. 99. CHAPTER XLVII RHODE ISLAND Title. PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND The state permanent common school fund of Rhode Island, officially known as the Permanent School Fund 512 is invested as a distinct and separate fund,513 chiefly in town and Condition, 1905 city bonds.513 In 1905 the principal amounted to $257,414513 and the annual interest or income from the same to $9,131 513 approximately forty-five hundredths per cent (.0045)* of $2,014,821, the total common school revenue derived from all sources in 1905.* 514 515 The Permanent School Fund was established in 1828, by an act which appropriated $5,000 as the basis of a permanent fund to be increased by revenues from lotteries (lotOrigin teries were abolished 1843), and auctions when a balance remained from these two sources after having paid the annual appropriations provided for by section 1 of the same act.5 Rhode Island received $382,335 30 as its share of the United States Surplus Revenue Loan of 1837. By an Act passed November 5, 1836, this entire amount was originally devoted to education 516 and to it was added $4,276 received in 1858 from the federal Government from the proceeds of the sales of federal lands. The principal * Computed. 512 Laws Pertaining to Education, compiled by Commissioner of Public Schools, 1896, Chap. 30, Sec. 1. 513 Data furnished Dec. 4, 1906, by L. M. Coggeshall, Clerk to the Rhode Island State Commissioner of Public Schools. 514 Rhode Island State Treasurer's Report, 1903, p. 66; Report U. S. Commissioner of Education gives revenue of state and local funds and rent of school lands as $15,223; $9,121 of this is interest on the permanent school fund, $6,102 is revenue from local funds and gifts. 615 Stockwell, Thos. P., History of Public Education, R. I., p. 45. 516 Public Laws of R. I., passed since 1835, pp. 913, 914. was in part loaned to the towns and in part deposited in banks which were to pay five per cent interest.517 "The state by the close of the year 1857 had borrowed all but $155,541 and in January, 1859, transferred that amount to the Permanent School Fund. To this it subsequently added $11,192 surplus state revenue in 1860," making the total amount added to the fund, $166,733.518 The state appears not to recognize her indebtedness, i. e., she makes no payment of annual interest on the United States Surplus Revenue but the annual state appropriation for common schools, $120,000, exceeds and perhaps may be considered to include, such interest.517 The present sources provided to increase the principal of this Sources of Management fund are two: taxes on auctioneers' fees,519 and quotas of state school revenue forfeited by towns.520 The fund is managed by the general treasurer with the advice of the governor.521 To the income of the Permanent School Fund must be added from the state treasury an amount sufficient to make the total, a sum fixed by law ($120,000, 1905). This total Apportionment is denominated "teachers' money" and is apportioned on a twofold basis as follows: (1) $100 to each school in every town not to exceed more than fifteen in any one town; (20) the remainder on the basis of town school population (five to fifteen years.)522 "Teachers' money including the revenue of the Permanent School Fund can be used solely for the payment of teachers' wages.' 523 Objects In order to participate in the revenue, the town must raise by local tax an amount equal to the share it receives from the state.5 Conditions of Participation 524 517 E. G. Bourne, History of Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 103-106. 518 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1896–97, p. 642; also E. G. Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, p. 105. 519 School Law, p. 15, Chap. 30, Sec. 2. 520 Ibid., p. 39, Chap. 53, Sec. 5, also p. 15, Chap. 30, Sec. 3. 521 Ibid., p. 15, Chap. 30, Sec. 1. 522 Ibid., p. 38, Chap. 53, Sec. 2. 623 Ibid., Sec. 3. 524 Ibid., Sec. 4. |