The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-01-20
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDS.
EDITOR DEMoCRAr:-

llSucu proceedings OF bQ0 school bO1ru
this Parish, announcing that the Publ
r Schools would be closed after this mont
for want of funds with which to pay til
teachers. regret this as public ealami
ty and as violation Of repeated promise
made by the Democratic party of this Stat
) in its platforms and reiterated by ever,
Democratic speaker in the political cam
paigns for years past Notably III the las
, campaign the issue of better support TO
the public schools was made by the people
directly and distinctly, and being then ;
candidate for public place l made pledges
on that subject, pledges made in g"ot
faith and feel that it is due to the peo
pls of this Parish, that as one of their re-
representatives., l should inform them o.
what was done at the last session of the
Legislature for the benefit of the Public
Schools-thst should show them where
the trouble lies and to suggest the remedy
which appears to me to he the only posi-
BILE solution of the difficulty.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN THE LEGISLATURE.
The present Legislature il practically a
unit in not only the desire bat the active
determination to give every possible dollar
to tho school fund. The appropriation for
that purpose by the previous Legislature
was $1O7, 200 and the rate of taxation to
raise that amount was one mill Oh the dol
lar There was, under the Act of 1882, to
be deducted from that amount $4,000 for the
support of three Universities endowed by
the State with $40, 900 each under the Con-
stitution of 1879, The General Appropria-
ton Act Of 1884 gives to the Public School
fund the sum of $3.50, 900, and the rate of
taxation as fixed by the Revenue Act, in
distributing the 6 mills, to which State
taxation is limited by the Constitution,
was one and one-haH mills on the dollar
for the fiscal year beginning July LIST,
1884, and one and one-eighth mills for the
fiscal year beginning July LIST, 1885. This
was an increase Of the appropriation from
$lO7, 900 to S250, 900, and Of the rate of tax
from one mill to one and one-half and one
and one-eighth mills. OF course it was I'M
derstood by all the friends of public educa-
ton that an increase Of the appropriation
without a corresponding increase of the
rate Of taxation for this specific purpose
would be mere brutem fMlmea, unless there
was surplus at the previous rate, and it
did not appear that there was surplus
The more taking out of tho current school
fund tho $50, 900 for the three Universities
and putting them in the General Fund for
1884 and 1885 increased the School fund for
those years by nearly onc-third of the whole
appropriation which had been previously
made. While it was we'll known that it
was doubtful if the ar,oant to be- realized
by levying the one and one half and one
and one-eighth mills upon the total assess
ed value of all property i'll the State wouid
realize the $3.50, 900, it was thought that ut
any rate the fund for the Public Schools
under the Acts Of 1884 would be certainly
doubled, and with the collection of poll
taxes, which is paid directly to the Parish
School Boards by tue Parish tax collectors
would put the Public Schools upon . sound
aud healthy basis,
In his last report to the Legislature the
Auditor gives S2t)2, 7:s, S62.O6 as the total
assessed value of the property in this State
listed for taxation. If the taxes levied
could all be collected without expense to
the State, we would have certain basis
for calculation aud we would have had for
1851 IS at one and one-llalf mills the sum
OF S304, lOS.29, and for 1856 at one and
one-cighth mills the sum of $22S, l93.7l.-I
Any such calculation is. of course, falla-
cious, because tho State has to pay COM
mission for assessing and collecting her
taxes and the total valuation of property
for taxation must be diminished by tile de-
linquent list, by double assessments of tho
same property, by personal property which
cannot be found, etc. I do not know what
is the proper percentage of the whole.to
allow for all these necessary deductions.
think ! may safely assume that it ought not
to be more than twenty five per cent ofthe
whole; this would diminish the sums
above given one-fourth and would give
s228, 08,.21 for 1S54-s5, and Sill, las. % for
the years 1856. From this is to be de- |
Quoted for each year $3.50 for salary and !
of the Office of Superintendent of |
Public Education; $5440 to pay interest on
the Seminary Fund; and $9ll5.69 to nav
interest due the Agricultural and Mechan-
ical College fund; aggregating $ls, 3O5. SO,
The Constitution requires the two last |
funds to be paid out Of the current school
fund. The salary and expenses of the State
was taken out of the School |
fund by the House but restored because |
the Senate put it back and after confer
ence it was agreed to by the House. In
this calculation / take no account of the |
s45, 2A.70 for each year, appropriated un-
der Article 233 Of the Constitution to pay
the interest on the amount due by the State
to the school fund. This grows out the
bonds hold by the State in trust for the
Public Schools, and being the proceeds of
lands donated by Congress prior to the
lands were sold by the State
and the proceeds or bonds into which the
proceeds had been converted. were, by
what the Supreme Court terms Gan act of
spolation" Of the Radical Legislature sold
and diverted. The Constitution of 1879
declares that the State shall pay to the
school fund annually the above amount of
interest Oh those diverted bonds, as per.
petual trust or debt. 1t was strenuonsly
by others as we'll as myself that
if the State owed the school fund S45, 2:34. 70
per year it oughG to be paid to the school
fund out of the general fund; that to take
it out of the current school fund and pay it
back to the current school fund was to
make no payment at all that such pro-
Feeding was mere pretense, an obvious
folly. In spite, however, of even such CO.
gent reasoning, the mandate of Article 1913
Of the Constitution had to he obeyed. The
appropriation is made out of the school
fund and is paid back to the school fund,
which is actually no loser, except that itl
would puzzle wiser man than l pretend
70 be, to see and tell how the State has
paid its debt to the school fund. The Ar
;icle of the Constitution is an absurdity,
NOW WHAT IS THE MATTER?
1t would seem that with such increased
appropriations tho Public Schools ought to
De, if notin prosperous condition, at least
IL a better condition than they were. The
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