CHAPTER XLVIII SOUTH CAROLINA Title. PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND The permanent state common school fund of South Carolina is known officially as the Permanent School Fund.525 This title appears to be based on usage and not on any Condition, 1906 legislative provision. "Our permanent fund is practically nothing and is not regarded as a part of the public school fund in making up our statistics." 526 The principal of this fund in 1906 amounted to about $46,000 527 yielding $2,251.74 annual interest at four per cent,527 which is approximately sixteen hundredths per cent (.0016)* of $1,372,063, the total common school revenue derived from all sources.5 528 Objects "This interest is now used only for Teachers' Institutes." 527 South Carolina appears to have established a permanent school fund in 1811, but little, if any, reliable information concerning it has been available. Section 11, article X, of the Origin constitution adopted in 1868 529 provided that "The proceeds of all lands that have been or hereafter may be given by the United States to this state for educational purposes, and not otherwise appropriated by this state or the United States, and of all lands or other property given by individuals, or appropriated by the state for like purposes, and of all estates of deceased persons who have died without leaving will or heir, shall be securely * Computed. 525 Report S. Car. State Supt. of Education, 1903, p. 185. 526 Extract from personal letter written Dec. 11, 1906, by W. H. Barton, Chief Clerk, S. Car. Department of Education. 527 Data furnished by S. Car. State Treasurer, R. H. Jennings, Dec. 19, 1906. 528 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1906, Vol. I, p. 306. 529 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1892-93, p. 1359. invested and sacredly preserved as a state school fund, and the annual interest and income of said fund, together with such other means as the general assembly may provide, shall be faithfully appropriated for the purpose of establishing and maintaining free public schools and for no other purposes or uses whatever.” 529 The Permanent School Fund is managed by the State Treasurer.530 Management Sources of The principal may be increased by moneys derived from the following sources: 531 (1) grants of land or gifts of money made to the state for educational purposes; (2) all gifts to the state where the purpose is not designated; (3) all escheated property; (4) net assets or funds of estates or copartnerships in the hands of the court of the state where there has been no claimants for the same within the last seventy years; (5) money resulting from the refunding of the direct-tax Act of Congress 1891; (6) liquor licenses except so much as is allotted to counties and municipal corporations. 530 School Law of S. Car., 1896, p. 9, Sec. 5. 531 School Law of S. Car., 1896; Constitution of 1895, Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1896-97, p. 648. CHAPTER XLIX SOUTH DAKOTA PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND Title 535 The permanent common school fund of South Dakota, known officially as the Permanent School Fund 532 was composed in 1906 as follows: 533 total invested cash principal $4,807,587; 1,283,910 acres of leased school lands valued at $19,258,650; and 918,844 acres of unleased school lands valued at $9,188,440, making the total value of the fund, invested and prospective, $33,254,677. Ten dollars per acre is provided by the state constitution as the minimum sale price. In some cases the lands may have to be disposed of for less than this, but this would require a constitutional amendment. In other cases they are selling for $40 and $50 per acre so that $10 per acre is a conservative estimate.534 The average price per acre received in 1905 was slightly over $26.534 The fund has been most wisely managed. It is kept as a distinct and separate fund. The principal is invested in farm loans, school, county, township and municipal bonds.533 The state has never borrowed any portion of the fund, and it has not suffered a single loss.533 The revenue is so large that many school districts depend upon it for the largest part of their support.533 In 1902 the revenue derived from the Permanent School Fund together with the rent of school lands amounted to $357,527,116 which was approximately seventeen and six-tenths per cent (.176) 113 of $2,026,576,116 the total common school revenue derived from all 632 Constitution of S. Dak., Art. VIII, Sec. 11; Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1892-93, p. 1395. 533 Official statement received Nov. 28, 1906, from M. M. Ramer, S. Dak. State Supt. of Public Instruction. 534 Private letter from S. Dak. State Supt. of Public Instruction, Nov. 8, 1906. 535 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1906, Vol. I, p. 306. sources, including taxation for that year.535 In 1906 the total common school revenue derived from all sources was $2,513,828, of which approximately twelve per cent (.1195)* was derived from the Permanent School Funds and its lands as follows: from the interest on the principal of the Permanent School Fund, $149,846; rent of school lands $150,773; total income $300,619.533 Origin Upon her admission into the Union, South Dakota received from the federal Government, 2,150,480 acres of school lands for the support of common schools, the same being the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in each township.537 Her first constitution, adopted November 2, 1889. provided for the establishment of a permanent common school fund from the proceeds of the sales of these lands.536 The constitution provides that the following sources shall be devoted to increasing the principal of the Permanent School Fund: (1) proceeds of the sales of public lands given by the United States; (2) a certain percentum (five per Sources of cent, see Enabling Act), to be fixed by law, of the state's share of the proceeds of the sales of federal lands lying within the state; (3) proceeds of property escheating to the state; (4) proceeds of gifts or donations to the state for public schools or not otherwise appropriated by the terms of the gift; (5) all property otherwise acquired for the maintenance of public schools by the state.538 The principal of the Permanent School Fund is distributed among the counties which hold and manage their shares as trust funds and are responsible to the state for the inviolate preservation of the same.532 Management Apportionment The revenue is apportioned among the public school corporations in proportion to the school population 539 (six to twenty-one years).540 * Computed. 536 Constitution of S. Dak., Art. VIII, Sec. 5. 537 Report Land Commissioner, 1898, p. vii. 538 Constitution of S. Dak., Art. VIII, Sec. 2. 539 Ibid., Sec. 3; Amended School Laws of the State of S. Dak., compiled by Supt. of Public Instruction, 1901, Sec. 25. 540 Amended School Laws, 1901, p. 12, Sec. 20. "For the maintenance of public schools in the state" 537 is the only provision made as to the uses to which the revenue may be Lawful Objects. applied, and neither the constitution nor the laws name any conditions which the school corporations must fulfil in order to share in the revenue of the Permanent School Fund.* * See Idaho, foot-note 1224. |