Court Opinion

ID: 9587837
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:26:54.17203+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:01.072798
License: Public Domain

Eggleston, C.J.,
dissenting.
The majority opinion holds inter alia: (1) There is no constitutional obligation on the General Assembly to relieve the closing of the public free schools in Prince Edward county; (2) the refusal of the local Board of Supervisors and the General Assembly to supply the necessary funds with which to maintain and operate the schools in Prince Edward county does not violate the rights of the citizens *674of that county guaranteed to them under the Fourteenth Amendment.
I disagree with both holdings.
As to the first point, I am firm in the view that the General Assembly is under the constitutional duty to relieve the closing of public free schools in Prince Edward county, a situation which has brought to this State the shameful distinction of having within its borders the only school district in this Nation where public free schools are not provided for its children.
The majority opinion argues at great length that under our Constitution it is not the duty of the General Assembly but that of the local school boards to operate public free schools. No one questions that. Nor until the situation in Prince Edward county arose did anyone question that the operation of public free schools is primarily a function of the State which establishes the machinery for such operation and that the local bodies are merely the agencies of the State in such operation. As we said in Kellam v. School Board of City of Norfolk, 202 Va. 252, 254, 117 S. E. 2d 96, 98, pursuant to the mandate of the Constitution, “the legislature has established school boards to act as agencies of the State in carrying out the obligations imposed.”
However that may be, we are not here primarily concerned with whose duty it is to operate the schools. The question is whose duty it is to maintain and support them. It is everywhere held that the maintenance of public schools is a state governmental duty and not a local function. 47 Am. Jur., Schools,, § 6, pp. 299, 300; 78 C. J. S., Schools and School Districts, § 17, p. 632.
As I see it, the specific issue in this case is whether, under the provisions of the Constitution of Virginia, it is the duty of the General Assembly to supply the necessary funds with which to operate public free schools in Prince Edward county where the local Board of Supervisors has refused to do so.
An affirmative answer to this question is found in the plain wording of § 129 of the Constitution which reads: “The General Assembly shall establish and maintain an efficient system of public free schools throughout the State.” This section stands at the head of Article IX of the Constitution dealing with “Education and Public Instruction.”
We have several times said that the section is mandatory and means just what it says. Harrison v. Day, 200 Va. 439, 450, 106 S. E. 2d 636, 645, and cases there cited.
*675The language of § 129 is plain and specific. It imposes on the General Assembly the duty to “establish” and the duty to “maintain” an efficient system of public free schools “throughout the State.” To “maintain,” as defined in Webster’s New International Dictionary, 3d Ed., means among other things, to “support” and “bear the expense of.” We accepted and applied that definition in Savage v. Commonwealth, 186 Va. 1012, 1020, 45 S. E. 2d 313, 317.
But what is conclusive of the matter is our holding in Harrison v. Day, supra, that this section “requires the State to ‘maintain an efficient system of public free schools throughout the State’ [Emphasis by the court.] That means that the State must support such public free schools in the State as are necessary to an efficient system, # # #.” (Emphasis added.) 200 Va., at page 450, 106 S. E. 2d, at page 646.
Webster’s New International Dictionary, 3d Ed., defines “throughout” as meaning “in or to every part of.” Accordingly, “throughout the State” means in every part of the State, which embraces every locality or school district in the State.
The majority opinion holds that under § 129 of the Constitution it is the obligation of the General Assembly to establish a “system of public free schools,” that it has done so by setting up a system whereby the necessary funds are furnished partly by the State and partly by the local governing bodies, and that having done this, the General Assembly has discharged its full constitutional duty and is not concerned if a particular locality refuses to do its duty. While this may satisfy the requirement for the General Assembly to “establish” a system, it ignores its duty to “maintain” such system.
It is true that the Constitution contemplates that the funds for the operation of schools will be supplied partly by appropriations by the General Assembly (§§ 134, 135) and partly by appropriations by the local governing bodies (§136). In Griffin v. Board of Supervisors of Prince Edward Co., 203 Va. 321, 327, 124 S. E. 2d 227, 232, we held that it is within the discretion of a local board of supervisors whether it will supply its share of the necessary funds to operate a local school. But it does not follow that where such local governing body refuses to discharge its duty the General Assembly is under no constitutional duty to supply this deficiency.
Section 135 of the Constitution, after providing that the General Assembly shall apply “the annual interest on the literary fund” and a portion of the capitation tax to school purposes, directs that it “shall make such other appropriations for school purposes as it may *676deem best.” But that section must be read in connection with § 129 which requires the General Assembly to “maintain” an efficient system of public free schools throughout the State. Thus, while under § 135 the General Assembly may appropriate such funds “as it may deem best,” such appropriation may not fall below the requirements of § 129.
If, as the majority opinion holds, Prince Edward county may refuse to appropriate its share of the necessary funds for the operation of its public free schools without imposing any additional financial obligation on the General Assembly, then each county or city may do likewise. In short, by the refusal of the localities to bear their respective shares of the cost of operating their public free schools the whole system might collapse, and yet there would be no duty on the General Assembly to maintain these schools. How can this reasoning be squared with the requirement on the General Assembly to maintain an efficient system of public free schools “throughout the State?” How can there be an efficient system of public free schools without any such schools? How can there be an efficient system of public free schools “throughout the State” so long as there are no such schools in Prince Edward county?
Obviously, the General Assembly does not satisfy the requirement of § 129 to “maintain” an efficient system of public free schools “throughout the State” where it fails to supply the necessary funds in case the local governing bodies refuse to do so.
In my opinion, where a single local governing body defaults on its obligation to supply the necessary funds for the operation of its schools, it is not the duty of the General Assembly, under § 129 of the Constitution, to take over and operate such schools. But, in that event, and under that section, it becomes the duty of the General Assembly to appropriate,, for the use of the local school board in that community, the necessary funds with which the latter may operate the schools there. This is quite in accord with the constitutional plan that the operation of such schools is the function of the local school boards.
The majority opinion holds that to do this might upset the present method of operating the public free schools, because, it says, every locality in the State might refuse, and indeed would be encouraged to refuse, to appropriate its share of the necessary funds, and that this would require the General Assembly to assume the entire obligation of furnishing the funds for the operation of such schools.
*677The obvious answer is that § 129 contemplates that the General Assembly shall assume this obligation rather than allow the public free schools to be closed in all localities, or even in a single locality. This would be in accord with what has been said is the well-recognized principle that the financial maintenance of public free schools is a state function.
As to the second point, in my opinion, the refusal of the Board of Supervisors and the General Assembly to supply the necessary funds for the maintenance of public free schools in Prince Edward county, while such public free schools are maintained elsewhere throughout the State, clearly denies to the citizens of that county, both white and colored, the equal protection and privileges of the law guaranteed to them under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The local boards of supervisors and the local school boards, as has been said, are mere agencies of the State in providing the local funds necessary for the maintenance and operation of the schools. Thus, in its final analysis, the default is a default of the State.
The majority opinion argues that we have many instances in which a particular locality or localities are granted local option privileges which are denied to other localities and that it is well settled that these local option privileges do not violate the equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. But to my mind we may not equate the constitutional right to an education in the public free schools in the State with such local option privileges. One is a necessity guaranteed to the citizens in the performance of a governmental function; the others are mere privileges which the State may grant or refuse at its pleasure.
The refusal of the highest court of this State to recognize here the rights of the citizens of Prince Edward county, guaranteed to them under the Constitution of the United States, is a clear invitation to the federal courts to step in and enforce such rights. I am sure that that invitation will be promptly accepted. We shall see!