The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-03-24

The School Fund.
atives:
Gentlemen-Your letter of the 10th
instant, inquiring "What constitutes
the states permanent school fund"
has been carefully considered 1t is
understood that your inquiry goes
chiefly to the question whether the
lands set apart to the public school
fund by the constitution, which re-
main unsold, are to be computed in
determining the total value of the
permanent school fund, l per cent
annually of which the leg
islature is authorized, by the amend
ment recently adopted, to add to the
available school fund. By section 2,
article of the constitution it is de-
clared that "all funds, lands and
other property heretofore set apart
and appropriated for the support of
public schools, all the alternate Sec
tions of land reserved by the state out
of grants heretofore made or that may
hereafter be made to railroads or
other corporations of any nature
whatsoever, one-half of the public do
main of the state, and all sums of
money that may come to the state
from the sale of any portion of the
same shall constitute perpetual pub
lie school fund"
So much of the amendment to Sec
tion 5, article T. adopted September
%, 1891, that is applicable to the ques-
ton is as follows:
"The principal of all bonds and other
funds, and the principal arising from
the sale of the lands here.
tofore set apart to the said school fund
shall be the permanent school fund;
and all the interest derivable there
from and the taxes herein authorized
and levied shall be the available
school fund, to which the legislature
may add not exceeding one per cent
annually of the total value of the per-
manent school fund; such value to be
ascertained by the board of education
until otherwise provided by law; and
the available school fund shall be APP
piled annually to the sup
port of the public free schools"
From these provisions it will be
seen that the constitution divides the
public school fund into three clauses,
viz: perpetual, permanent and avail
able. The first, created by section 2,
is composed of all funds, lands and
other property therefor set apart; all
alternate sections of land granted to
railroads or other corporations; one
half of the public domain; and all
sums of money realized from the sale
of lands thus set apart. The second,
defined by section 5, consists of the
principal of all bonds, the principal of
other funds, and the principal arising
from the sale of lands therein before
set apart to the school fund. And al
the interest derivable from the perm
anent school fund and taxes author
lied to be levied constitute the avail
able fund, to which may be added
annually l per cent of the total
value of the permanent fund. This
division of the fund into the three
classes named seems to have
been deliberately made and if such be
the case no authority exists to disre-
gard it. Ordinarily it may he con-
coded that the terms perpetual and
permanent have the same practical
significance, but in this instance the
constitution defines the meaning Of
the terms by an enumeration OF the
parts composing each, and these parts
are essentially different in the two
cases. The items which make up the
perpetual fund are more numerous
and include greater variety OF sub
jects than those comprising the per-
manent fund. The former includes all
property which the people deemed ex-
pedient to dedicate perpetually to the
public schools, but the permanent fund
is far more restricted and only in
cludes such parts of the perpetual
fund as may from time to time be-
come interest bearing. This con-
struction, it is believed, necessarily fol-
lows from the use of the term principal
in the description of each of the items
composing the permanent fund. The
only item in section which by any
possible construction can include un-
sold lands is the "other funds.o This,
however, cannot be held to have re-
ference to these lands, both because
the use of the term principal in con-
nection with that item obviously pre-
cludes such construction and because
the use of the terms Glands" and
"fundsu in section 2, where the entire
Iunu is UTOduly 0uuluOlo1Ouj SiOoiiy
indicates that the latter was not
intended to embrace the former.
AS further illustrating the cor
rectness of this construction it may be
observed that it is evident from sec.
ton that the intention of the trainers
of the constitution, when drafting that
section, was drawn to the lands form
ing part of the school fund, and they
failed to include them by name at
least in the permanent fund, Had
the purpose been to embrace them in
that fund it is probable that such in
tention would have been clearly ex-
pressed. Having by name placed only
the principal arising from the sale OF
said lands in the permanent fund the
inference is fair and reasonable that
it was intended to exclude the
unsold lands. This construction is
borne out by the further fact that
there are other interest bearing secur-
tiles belonging to the permanent fund
besides bonds and land notes arising
from the sale of lands set apart by the
constitution, and there can be but lit
tie doubt that to these, and others
which may be lawfully created, the
term "other funds" in section 5 re-
fers.
For these reasons / think the un-