Opinion ID: 2509859
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Colonial Period to 1877: County Schools Created by General Laws and Independent Schools Created by Special and Local Laws

Text: As explained in McDaniel v. Thomas, 248 Ga. 632, 285 S.E.2d 156 (1981), public education in Georgia has proceeded in fits and starts since the `presentation of a thousand spelling-books to James Edward Oglethorpe by James Leake, in 1732,' id. at 649, 285 S.E.2d 156 (citation omitted), due in large part to inadequate and inequitable funding. See id. at 641-643, 649-659, 285 S.E.2d 156. [15] From the early days of statehood, there have been county schools and school districts (also called systems) that were established statewide by general laws and sometimes referred to as common schools. There have also been individual schools and school systems established by special and local laws, separate from the common county systems and sometimes referred to as not common, independent, or special schools. Likewise, over time schools and school systems have reflected varying mixes of state and local funding and control. See generally id. at 633-638, 641-643, 649-659, 285 S.E.2d 156. Thus, the original 1777 Constitution included a clause providing that `schools shall be erected in each county and supported at the general expense of the State, as the legislature shall hereafter point out and direct,' although limited state funding required these schools to operate as private institutions and rely on tuition fees. McDaniel, 24B Ga. at 649, 285 S.E.2d 156 (quoting Article LIV of the 1777 Constitution). Later acts promoted a statewide system of public education, but the results were inconsistent. See id. at 649-651, 285 S.E.2d 156. In 1868, after the Civil War, a new constitution was adopted that provided that [t]he general assembly . . . shall provide a thorough system of general education, to be forever free to all children of the State, the expense of which shall be provided for by taxation or otherwise. Ga. Const. of 1868, Art. VI, Sec. I. This Constitution did not, however, create county boards of education to establish schools; instead, the General Assembly had authority to select any entity it wished to establish and operate the general education system. In 1870, the General Assembly enacted the first comprehensive public school law. See McDaniel, 248 Ga. at 652, 285 S.E.2d 156; Ga. L. 1870, pp. 49-61. The 1870 act provided that each county would be a single school district managed by a county board of education, see Ga. L. 1870 at 52, and funded by a local ad valorem tax, see id. at 57, 285 S.E.2d 156, as well as a statewide common school fund, see id. at 60, 285 S.E.2d 156. The 1870 act also established the state board of education, which was given the authority to prescribe the textbooks and thereby set the curriculum for the State's schools, see id. at 49-50, 285 S.E.2d 156, and the position of state school commissioner (later renamed superintendent), who was granted the authority to prescribe regulations to be followed by local school officers and to equitably divide state revenue between the school districts, see id. at 51, 285 S.E.2d 156. However, distinct from the statewide county school districts, the General Assembly also separately authorizedsometimes the word chartered is usedthe creation of other school districts in specific counties and municipalities, as well as individual schools for blind children and deaf children. See Ga. L. 1872, p. 388 (setting forth the local law establishing the Board of Public Education for Bibb County); Ga. L. 1872, p. 456 (setting forth the local law establishing the Board of Education for Richmond County); Ga. L. 1870, p. 481 (setting forth the local law authorizing the City of Atlanta to establish a public school system); Ga. L. 1852, p. 4 (establishing Georgia Academy for the Blind); Ga. L. 1847, p. 94 (establishing Georgia School for the Deaf). In 1872, the General Assembly also revised the 1870 act to expressly acknowledge the existence of these schools separate from the statewide system of county board-controlled schools and to authorize the creation by the General Assembly of new independent schools. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent any city with a population greater than two thousand inhabitants, or any county under authority from the General Assembly of this State, from organizing a public school system, independent of this [statewide] system. . . . Ga. L. 1872, pp. 64, 75. It should also be noted that the local school system appellants in this case (hereafter the local systems) all agree that the schools for the blind and the deaf qualify as special schools.