established at an opportune time, and was a strong advocate of territorial division. It suggested that the new territory embrace all the country north of the Columbia River, and that it should be called the Territory of Columbia. At a convention held at Monticello, Cowlitz River, November 25, 1852, Congress was memoralized asking that portion of the Oregon Territory lying north of the Columbia River and west of the great northern branch be organized into a separate territory. The territorial legislature of Oregon memorialized Congress to grant a division as provided by the Monticello Convention. In the meantime, the bill was amended to change the name of the proposed new territory from that of the Territory of Columbia to that of the Territory of Washington. The territory which was provided for in the Organic Act of 1853 embraced a much larger area than was asked for in the Monticello Memorial, and was described as follows: 53 "All that portion of the Oregon Territory lying south of the forty-ninth degree of north latitude and north of the main channel of the Columbia River from its mouth to where the forty-sixth degree of north latitude crosses said river, near Fort Walla Walla, thence with said forty-sixth degree of latitude to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, thence north following the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the forty-ninth degree of north latitude."54 On March 2, 1853, Congress acted favorably on a memorial asking for a division of the territory, and as a result we have the Organic Act of that date creating the Washington Territory. This act, following the policy pursued in other states, made liberal land grants for establishing and maintaining a system of public schools.55 53 Hawthorne (Julian), History of Washington, Vol. II, p. 22. 54 Organic Act, 1853. 55 Hawthorne (Julian), History of Washington, Vol. II, p. 23. II. COMMON SCHOOL FUND 1. SCHOOL SUPPORT BEFORE 1854 Education was left unmentioned in the Federal Constitution, and the tenth amendment left the matter entirely to the states. This amendment reads: Article X. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."56 The Organic Act of Congress creating the Territory of Washington was approved March 2, 1853, and in section twenty of this act provision is made that sections sixteen and thirty-six of public lands in every township shall be reserved for common school purposes.57 The few scattered and primitive schools prior to the Territorial legislature of 1854, were supported by private subscriptions, missionary support, and in rare cases by mutual local taxation, as was the case of support of the school at Olympia. When the first session of the legislature of the Territory of Washington was convened in Olympia on February 27, 1854, the first governor, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, appeared before the body with the first gubernatorial message. In that document is found the following paragraph:58 "The subject of education already occupies the minds and hearts of the citizens of this Territory, and I feel confident that they will aim at nothing less than to provide a system which shall place within the means of all the full development of the capacities with which each has been endowed. Let every youth, however limited his opportunities, find his place in the school, the college, the university, if God has given him the necessary gifts. Congress has made liberal appropriations of land for the support of the schools, and I would recommend that a special commission be instituted to report on the whole system of schools. I will also recommend that Congress be memorialized to appropriate land for a university."59 By an act of the first territorial legislature provision was made that the principal of all moneys accruing from the sale of any land given by Congress for school purposes, or which may hereafter be given by Congress for school purposes, shall constitute a permanent and irreducible school fund; the interest accruing from such moneys shall be divided annually among all the school districts in the territory, proportionately to the number of children between the ages of four and twenty-one living in each district. It was specified that this money should be used for the support of common schools and for no other purpose whatsoever. But, owing to the fact that no public land commission had been provided by the legislature for the territory no immediate money from this source was received.60 The following table shows the states receiving township section school grants for public schools:61 56 Constitution of the United States, Article X. 57 The Organic Act, 1853, Section 20. 58 Dewey (H. B.), History of Education in Washington, 1909, p. 7. 59 Ibid. 60 Laws of Washington, 1854, pp. 319-20. 61 Swift (F. H.), Federal Aid to Public Schools, 1922, Bulletin No. 47, p. 10. FEDERAL LAND GRANTS FOR COMMON SCHOOLS Three states, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, have received from the Federal Government, for the support of public schools, sections 2, 16, 32, and 36 in each township. The following table shows the states receiving no Federal land grants for common schools." 63 In the absence of any available funds from school lands at this time for the purpose of establishing and maintaining common schools, the county commissioners of each county were authorized by an act of the legislature to assess an 62 Reserved but not granted; area estimated. 63 Swift (F. H.), Federal Aid to Public Schools, 1922, Bulletin No. 47, p. 9. annual tax of two mills on a dollar, on all taxable property in the county. All money collected from this source was appropriated for the hire of school teachers. In addition to the two mill levy by the county commissioners, the first territorial legislature gave authority to district meetings, legally called, to levy a tax upon the property of the district for any purpose whatever, connected with, and for the benefit of public schools, and the promotion of education in the district.64 Special taxes were made possible to meet the deficiencies in the current school funds of the different counties and districts of the territory by an amendment to the school law of 1854, approved January 30, 1858, in which provision I was made whereby any legally called school meeting, by a majority vote of the legal voters subject to school tax, could vote to levy a special tax not to exceed twenty-five cents on the one hundred dollars valuation on the taxable property of the district, for school purposes. The county tax was changed a number of times to meet emergencies. Three mills on the dollar was authorized in 1860.6 Another scheme for raising local school funds which apparently was carried over from pre-territorial times by the legislature of 1860 and enacted into law, was that of authorizing the directors to assess parents or guardians of children attending school for their portion of the necessary expense of sustaining the school, in the way of tuition, fuel, and the like, in proportion to the number of children sent by each.67 For further support of common schools, the county treasurer was required to set aside all money received by his office arising from fines for breach of any penal laws committed in the territory. The money received from this source was added to the yearly school fund raised by tax, and apportioned in the same manner.68 During the Civil War when the territory became burdened with financial obligations, school finances suffered and as a measure of relief the legislature of 1861 enacted a law authorizing the county commissioners of any county, when they were convinced that the welfare of the common schools demanded it, to sell the lands within their respective limits, which had been donated by Congress for school purposes."9 This land was to be sold in subdivisions of not more than one hundred and sixty acres, to the highest bidder, at the minimum price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.T0 The moneys received from these lands were to be loaned out at the legal rate of interest. The law specifically states that the principal should not be reduced but should be a perpetual fund for school purposes only." If there was no school district within the limits of the township in which the land was sold, the voters, by a two-thirds vote could appropriate the money received from the sale of the land to the 64 Laws of Washington, 1854, p. 326, Section 6. 65 Ibid. 1858, p. 22, Section 21. 66 Session Laws, 1860, p. 34. 67 Ibid. 1854, p. 320. 68 Laws of Washington, 1860, p. 316, Section 19. 69 Ibid. 1861, p. 31, Section 1. 70 Ibid. 1861, p. 32, Section 3. 71 Ibid. 1861, p. 32, Section 4. support of schools in the districts convenient to them. This last provision was not applied to Whatcom, Klickitat, Skamania, Pierce, Chehalis, Clark, and Walla Walla Counties until later.72 Two years later, January 23, 1863, provision was made whereby the county commissioners, under certain conditions, could sell certain school lands at private sale for not less than one dollar and fifty cents per acre. Such sales were confined to persons who were rightfully in possession of any part or parts of sections sixteen and thirty-six previous to the public survey.73 This protection to the possessor was provided for in the Donation, or Pre-emption Act." In January, 1868, the need for funds became so general throughout the territory that an act was approved allowing the directors in any school district, after the public money was expended, to levy a special tax not exceeding two mills for sustaining a school in that district, upon a petition signed by a majority of all the parents and guardians of the scholars and resident property holders paying taxes in such districts.75 On November 29, 1871, another law was approved to take effect January 1, 1872, which raised the annual tax for schools to four mills on the dollars. The law also gave districts power to levy taxes for school purposes additional to the four mill tax.76 A law approved November 14, 1873, repealed all preceding acts in relation to common schools, and enacted a new law with the following changes in regard to school funds: (1) Provision was made for levying a tax of not more than four mills; (2) the new law restricted the power of district meetings to levy a district tax, "for any purpose whatsoever connected with and for the benefit of schools and promotion of education in the district," to "a tax not exceeding ten mills on a dollar for the purpose of building and repairing school houses;"77 (3) it requires voters in districts to be taxpayers as well as residents;78 (4) repealed the compulsory feature of the former law."9 79 An act approved November 9, 1877, relative to the public school system of the Territory of Washington gave boards of directors of any school the privilege, when they deemed it advisable, to submit to the qualified school electors of such district the question of whether a special tax, which should not exceed ten mills, should be raised "to furnish additional school facilities for the district or to maintain any school or schools in the district, or for building one or more school houses, or for removing or building additions to one already built, or for the purchase of globes, maps, charts, books of reference and other appliances or apparatus for teaching, or for any or all of these purposes.'" 72 Ibid. 1861, pp. 32-33, Section 8. 73 Ibid. 1863, pp. 476-7. 74 Donation Act, Section 9. 75 Laws of Washington, 1867-8, p. 18, Section 1. 76 Session Laws, 1871, pp. 13-14. 77 Laws of Washington, 1873, p. 431, Section 4. 78 Ibid, p. 435, Section 20. 79 Ibid. p. 436, Section 31. 80 Laws of Washington, 1877, Title XV, Section 81, pp. 280-1. 9780 |