The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-07
MUST TURN THEM In
Township Trustees Can No Longer
Hold Tuition Balances.
Supreme Court Cuts Off Their Profit by
Declaring the New Law Constitu-
tiOnal-Judge Brown Reversed.


and holds constitutional the act of 1893
which requires school trustees 10 make re-
turn of unexpended tuition balances. The
opinion holds that the Attorney-general is
the proper relator in the bringing of a suit
to recover such balances. and that the tut
ton revenues, when they reach the hands
of school trustee school corporation,
are commingled, and must be so held by
them and paid out exclusively for teachers
salaries without reference to the source
from which the several items constituting
such tuition revenues were received. 1t also
decides that the State, on the first Monday
of July of any year. is entitled to receive
the same proportion of the balance then
held as the amount received from the State
bears TO the entire amount received from
all sources, less 500.
Judge Brown held that while the law was
unconstitutional, the Attorney-general was
the proper relatOr, and that the tuition
revenues in the hands of school trustee
were under the laws of the State COM
mingled and expended. The Supreme
Court holds the law constitutional and In
other respects affirming the conclusions of
Judge Brown.
Mr.. Bailey, who has had exclusive charge
of this litigation on behalf of the State,
says that Mr.. Smith, before leaving for
Washington. left explicit instructions TO
be given in the event OF a favorable de-
cision. He expressly directs that all
trustees holding tuition balances belonging
to the State shall be given ample oppor-
tunity TO pay over the same without suit;
that the State shall be put to no expense
in these collections except where failure,
neglect or refusal to comply with the law
is persisted in; that obstruction to
speedy and voluntary settlements will be
permitted.
WHAT THE DECISION MEANS.
Mr.. Bailey regards the victory signal
one, which will rebound to the great and
lasting good of the school children of the
State; that it will result in a more perfect
distribution of school tuition revenues; de-
stroy all motives for dishonest and padded
enumerations. and be the deathknell to all
private speculations in tuition balances. All
the people of the State, except balance
holders, will rejoice in the decision just rem
dered.
decision was in the line of what the people
had been wanting for long time. He pre-
pared blanks for the county auditors just
after the act went into effect, last winter,
and the auditors sent them out, but the
township trustees refused to send lin their
balances. Thereupon he consulted the At
t0rney-general, and the suit against John
+. Mcclellan was brought TO test the law.
For the past fifteen years the State Super
intendents have all made the most earnest
which should stop this balance-holding bus
mess on the part of trustees. Some of the
old decisions of the courts held that funds
I'm the hands of trustees belonged, for the
time being. to them, and could be loaned
out legitimately This has been great evil,
and an encouragement to peculation, as
these balances were turned over from sue
ceSsor to successor, without the formaIty
of a report to the State or county. No OFF,
Ger is so all-powerful as the trustee, who
can fix the local levy to suit himself, and,
by making il pretty heavy, secure control
of large amounts OF money which he can
loan out to advantage. This fact has made
the four-year office of township trustee
very desirable one. Yesterdays decision
will stop all this using Of balances in bust
ness or as a means of private revenue. The
trustee must now return whatever bal
ance he has hand to the county treas
urer, who reports il to the State, and in
the next distribution this balance Is taken
into account. For instance, If county has
5000 on hand and asks for $4,000 it Will be
The State Board of Education and Super
intendent Worries drafted the law passed
year ago, and were largely instrumental
i'm it's passage. The padded enumeration
evil was one of the most important feat
ures aimed at. and this decision also kills
that off. In Jacksonville, not long ago, 90
per cent. of its population were enrolled
on the school census. Here was the absurd
spectacle of a city claiming that 90 per
cent. of it's people were between the ages
of six and twenty-one years. The opinion
censures this evil very severely. and says
that the new law does away with all mo
ing the balances swelled to such big paying
proportions.
OF the naIf million dollars or more in
volved in this suit, and which has been
withheld i'm the last twenty years, possibly
$500 900 has been paid to the counties. About
100000 is still held back by the trustees,
Jeffersonville having $4,000 that will be
transferred to the State treasury.
PART OF THE OPINION.
The opinion, which was written by Judge
McCabe, is voluminous, and among other
things it says: ut is claimed that the act
is i'm violation of Article of the Constitu-
ton I'm that 1t operates to make an unequal
distribution of the school money. In the
contention Of the appellee that the law di-
verts the ownership of the funds, he has
failed to point out the section of the Con-
stitution which is violated. AS. to the dis
tribution. it is held that it is competent and
constitutional for the Legislature to au-
thoriZe unequal distribution of the State
school revenue TO the various school COrpO-
rations in the inverse ratio Of the amount
of tuition revenues possessed by each school
corporation, derived from the income OF the
permanent congressional township fund so
as TO make the distribution of school fund
revenue from all sources, when combined
in each, equal according TO the number of
school children in each: The congressional
township fund, owned by the various con-
gressional townships. is very unequal in
amount and consequently the school revenue
derived therefrOm is also very unequal in
amount II must be borne in mind that
while the Constitution makes the congress
sional township fund. and lands belonging
thereto a part of the permanent school fund
of the State, yet 1t is not settled law that
neither that fund nor the school revenue
derived from the income be diverted
from the inhabitants of the congressional
townships The leading thought of the ar
ticle of the Constitution is that which en-
Joins upon the Legislature to provide for
a general system Of common schools where
in tuition shall be without charge and
equally open to all. Whatever contributes
to the accomplishment OF that great end Is
but means 10 the accomplishment of that
leading purpose. The state does not under
take 10 give each child an equal amount of
education That would require a higher
power than the State.
Courts do not bend the Constitution when
they give II the effect which the people in
tended it should have. The equal distribu-
school corporations according TO the num-
Der OF school children is a means and not
an end. An equal distribution owing 10 10
cal causes may operate this to end and
the leading purpose or the Constitution.
Should a appropriated township have
tributed to IL left over at the end of the
school year. the statutory requiem ent that
It be returned for redistribution Is in strict
conformity TO the requirement OF the Con-
stitutiOn that the schools shall be equally
opcn 70 all 1t Is believed that scarcely
anything could be more unfavorable TO the
faithful administration of our common
school system than to allow these uneX-
pended balances to accumulate in the hands
of township trustees. a constant temptation
to d5rehctiOn of cuty. IL not OF fraud. So
long as these balances are thus suffered TO
remain in the hands Of township trustees
the school children are wholly deprived of
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