Case Title: STATE, EX REL. v. Hayden

Citation: 197 Kan. 199, 416 P.2d 61

Docket Number: 44,684

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1966-06-25T00:00:00Z

Document:
197 Kan. 199 (1966)
416 P.2d 61
STATE OF KANSAS ex rel. ROBERT C. LONDERHOLM, Attorney General, Plaintiff,
v.
IRVEN HAYDEN, JR., F.E. CRAIG, and ED UNGER, County Commissioners of Rawlins County, Kansas, Defendants.
No. 44,684

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed June 25, 1966.
J. Richard Foth, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause, and Robert C. Londerholm, Attorney General, was with him on the briefs for the plaintiff.
Robert A. Creighton, of Atwood, argued the cause and was on the briefs for the defendants.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
HATCHER, C.:
This is an original proceeding in mandamus brought on the relation of the Attorney General for the purpose of *200 compelling the commissioners of Rawlins County, Kansas to pay the tuition provided by K.S.A. 1965 Supp., 72-6916 (b) for students of Rawlins County attending the Colby Community Junior College.
The petition alleges the existence of a statutory duty on the part of the defendants to allow and pay the claim for "out-district tuition." The answer admits the existence of such statutory duty but contends that the statute imposing the duty contravenes the Kansas Constitution.
At this point a general review of the statute establishing a statewide system of junior colleges may be helpful. It provides for a state advisory council which is to assist the state superintendent in preparing a statewide plan for development of community junior colleges. Any one or more interested school districts may make a study and present a petition for the establishment of a community junior college meeting specified standards. Junior colleges existing at the time of the effective date of the act are "deemed approved" and upon receipt of a petition by such an existing junior college the state superintendent is to make an order providing for its organization as a community junior college.
Community junior colleges are bodies corporate comparable to other school districts. They may levy taxes up to five mills if their taxable tangible valuation is less than sixty million dollars and up to three mills if their valuation is over sixty million.
The sources for financing community junior colleges are provided by K.S.A. 1965 Supp., 72-6916  each student is to pay tuition at a rate to be established by the trustees but not to exceed seven dollars per credit hour and state aid will be granted at a uniform rate not less than two and not more than five dollars per credit hour. The balance of the operating expense for students residing within the district is to be raised by a tax levy upon the district property, and the balance of the operating expense for students residing within the state but outside the district is to be paid by the county of the student's residence through out-district tuition.
The commissioners of each county subject to pay out-district tuition are required to levy an out-district tuition tax sufficient to meet the county's obligation. Proceeds of the tax are to be placed in the general fund and upon receiving a statement of charges the commissioners "shall allow and pay the same promptly from the general fund of the county."
The levy for out-district tuition is outside of the aggregate levy *201 limit and all payments from the general fund for out-district tuition are exempt from the budget law to the extent of such payments.
The Colby Community Junior College notified Rawlins County that for the school year 1965-66, it anticipated an out-district tuition charge against that county in the approximate amount of $3,000. The defendant county commissioners sought the opinion of their county attorney who, under date of July 16, 1965, furnished a memorandum stating that in his opinion the out-district tuition provisions of the Community Junior College Act were unconstitutional. The defendants neither budgeted nor levied a tax for out-district tuition in the 1966 budget adopted in August, 1965.
In November, 1965, Colby Community Junior College submitted its statement of charges for out-district tuition for the fall semester in the amount of $1,504.07 for residents of Rawlins County attending the junior college. Defendants took no action upon the claim submitted but on February 2, 1966, through the county clerk of Rawlins County, formally notified the junior college that they did not intend to pay any claims for community junior college out-district tuition. It is stipulated that at all times the Rawlins County general fund was adequate to pay the claim in question, so the applicability of the cash basis law is not an issue.
The parties stipulated that the issues presented by the pleadings were:
The state has presented its brief on the above issues. However, the defendants, in their brief, have abandoned their contentions that the act violates Article 6, Section 10 and Article 11, Section 5 of the Kansas Constitution and has added a new issue, i.e., does the act violate Article 11, Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution? The state has filed a reply brief covering the new issue.
We will consider the questions as stated in the defendants' brief.
Two of the issues discussed at length by defendants are based on an invalid assumption. Defendants state:
*202 They also suggest that, "if, as plaintiff's brief contends, community junior colleges are part of the common-school system of Kansas," the act providing for tuition chargeable to students as individuals for a "public school" violates Article 6, Section 2 of the Kansas Constitution.
We do not understand that the state contends that community junior colleges as created by the act in controversy are part of the common-school system as that term is used in Article 6, Section 2 of the Kansas Constitution which provides:
The defendants themselves, at another point in their brief, argue strenuously that community junior colleges as established by the act are not "common schools."
A common school is one which is open to all within the school boundaries and is supported at public expense through taxation, free of any charge to the attending students. (78 C.J.S., Schools and School Districts, § 1, p. 606; 47 Am. Jur., Schools, § 3, p. 298.) Ordinarily colleges and universities or those teaching grades higher than high schools are not considered common schools.
"Common schools," as that term is used in the Kansas Constitution, mean free schools common or accessible to all. In Board of Education v. Dick, 70 Kan. 434, 78 Pac. 812, this court approved the following definitions of common schools:
"Anderson, in his Law Dictionary, says:
"Rapalje and Lawrence define common schools to be:
It was further stated in the opinion that it must be assumed that the men who wrote our constitution used the phrase `common schools' in its technical sense as we find it defined. It follows, therefore, both from authority and reason, that the phrase `common schools' was used in the constitution in its technical sense, which means free schools.
We must conclude that K.S.A. 1965 Supp., 72-6901, et seq., does not create junior colleges as part of the common-school system but creates a public system of community junior colleges with separate faculties and separate facilities of their own, and part of the operating expense is to be paid by the students in the form of tuition and the balance by taxation, both general and local. The provisions of Article 6, Section 2, of the Kansas Constitution relating to common schools, therefore, have no application to the act under consideration.
The defendants contend that the out-district tuition provided for in the act constitutes taxation without representation. They state:
We do not agree with defendants' contention. The provisions covering out-district tuition are to be found in K.S.A. 1965 Supp., 72-6916 (b) and read as follows:
It will be noted that the legislature provided for the levy of the out-district tuition tax and how the amount was to be calculated. The legislature also provided to whom and under what conditions the money raised by the tax was to be paid out. Rawlins County had a representative in the legislature when the law was enacted. This is all the representation that is necessary.
Defendants quote from 51 Am. Jur., Taxation, § 50, p. 81, as authority for its contention that although the maxim of no taxation without representation is not actually incorporated into the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of Kansas it has occasionally been invoked as limiting or prohibiting taxing power. Defendants did not read far enough; had they read the last sentence of the section from which they quoted they would have found the following statement:
Defendants' contention that the residents of Rawlins County would be taxed under the act without representation has no merit.
Defendants last contend that the provisions of K.S.A. 1965 Supp., 72-6916 (b) violates Article 11, Section 1 of the Kansas Constitution which provides:
Defendants' contention is founded on the following statement:
Defendants' argument overlooks the fact that the provision for uniform and equal rates of assessment does not require that the levy and amount raised by the tax be the same in each taxing district. The constitution only requires a uniform and equal rate throughout the territory in which the tax is levied and the principle of equality is fully satisfied by making local taxation equal and uniform as to all property within the limits of the taxing district. (State v. Lawrence, 79 Kan. 234, 100 Pac. 485; Carey v. Board of Education, 113 Kan. 398, 214 Pac. 792; School District v. Community High School, 146 Kan. 380, 69 P.2d 1102.)
In the act under consideration the taxing district is in each instance the county involved or the community junior college district involved, and within such taxing district any tax levied will be uniform and equal.
The act providing for the creation of community junior colleges fills an important gap in the educational system of the State of Kansas. It is an endeavor to place at least two years of post-high school education within commuting distance of all youth in the state. An examination of the 1964 report of the Advisory Committee on junior colleges to the Kansas Legislative Council reveals the need for a broad and comprehensive plan.
The doubling of the number of students seeking a college education will have a terrific impact on existing higher education services and on state finances. Changes in the Kansas economy and in the employment pattern reveal the need for technical and occupational training to equip young people for employment.
Community junior colleges provide an economical way of placing two years of post-high school education within reach of a maximum number of students. They provide education and training for a large body of technical and semiprofessional manpower in the labor force. They also provide the means by which a large number of young women who do not enter four year colleges can obtain special training for employment. They will tend to relieve overcrowding at the state schools. They will also be less expensive for the students and their parents as the student may room and board at home. It also makes possible two additional years of parental supervision.
*206 A careful examination of the defendants' contentions discloses no constitutional infirmities in the act providing for the creation of community junior colleges, but rather discloses a carefully written law to supply in a practical way a necessary adjunct to the state's educational system.
No justifiable reasons are presented why the defendants, constituting the Board of County Commissioners of Rawlins County, have not complied with the provisions of K.S.A. 1965 Supp., 72-6916 (b).
Judgment is, therefore, granted plaintiff and it is ordered that the defendants acting as the Board of County Commissioners of Rawlins County forthwith pay to the Colby Community Junior College, out of the county general fund, the charges for out-district tuition as provided by K.S.A. 1965 Supp., 72-6916 (b).
APPROVED BY THE COURT.
FROMME, J., not participating.