ARKANSAS.

Formed from the Louisiana purchase. Area 52,198 square miles. Admitted into the Union in 1836.

The constitution of 1836 makes provision for education in article nine.

ARTICLE IX.-EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. Knowledge and learning generally diffused through a community being essential to the preservation of a free government, and diffusing the opportu nities and advantages of education through the various parts of the State being highly conducive to this end, it shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide by law for the improvement of such lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this State for the use of schools, and to apply any funds which may be raised from such land, or from any other source, to the accomplishment of the object for which they are or may be intended. The general assembly shall, from time to time, pass such laws as shall be calculated to encourage intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvements, by allowing rewards and immunities for the promotion and improvement of arts, science, commerce, manufactures, and natural history, and countenance and encourage the principles of humanity, industry, and morality.

In the amended constitution of 1865 this article remains, and is numbered eight.

MICHIGAN.

First settled in 1650. Area 56,243 square miles. Admitted into the Union in 1837.

The governor shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the legislature in joint vote, shall appoint a superintendent of public instruction, who shall hold his office for two years, and whose duties shall be prescribed by

law.

The legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement. The proceeds of all lands that have been, or hereafter may be, granted by the United States to this State for the support of schools, which shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, together with the rents of all such unsold lands, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of schools throughout the State.

The legislature shall provide for a system of common schools, by which a school shall be kept up and supported in each school district at least three months in every year; and every school district neglecting to keep up and support such a school may be deprived of its equal proportion of the interest of the public fund.

As soon as the circumstances of the State will permit, the legislature shall provide for the establishment of libraries, one at least in each township; and the money which shall be paid by persons as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, and the clear proceeds of all fines assessed in the several counties for any breach of the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied for the support of said libraries.

The legislature shall take measures for the protection, improvement, or other disposition of such lands as have been, or may hereafter be, reserved or granted by the United States to this State for the support of a university; and the funds accruing from the rents or sale of such lands, or from any other source, for the purpose aforesaid, shall be and remain a permanent fund for the support of said university, with such branches as the public convenience may hereafter demand, for the promotion of literature, the arts and sciences, and as may be authorized by the terins of such grant; and it shall be the duty of the legislature, as soon as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds of said university.

The second constitution, adopted in 1850, devotes to education

ARTICLE XIII.

SECTION 1. The superintendent of public instruction shall have the general supervision of public instruction, and his duties shall be prescribed by law. 2. The proceeds from the sales of all lands that have been, or hereafter may be, granted by the United States to the State for educational purposes, or appropriated by the State for like purposes, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest and income of which, together with the rents of all such lands as may remain unsold, shall be inviolably appropriated and annually applied to the specific objects of the original gift, grant, or appropriation.

3. All lands, the titles to which shall fail from a defect of heirs, shall escheat to the State; and the interest on the clear proceeds from the sales thereof shall be appropriated exclusively to the support of primary schools.

4. The legislature shall, within five years from the adoption of this constitution, provide for and establish a system of primary schools, whereby a school shall be kept, without charge for tuition, at least three months in each year, in every school district in the State, and all instruction in said schools shall be conducted in the English language.

5. A school shall be maintained in each school district at least three months in each year. Any school district neglecting to maintain such school, shall be deprived for the ensuing year of its proportion of the income of the primary school fund, and of all funds arising from taxes for the support of schools.

6. There shall be elected in each judicial circuit, at the time of the election of the judge of such circuit, a regent of the university, whose term of office shall be the same as that of such judge. The regents thus elected shall constitute the board of regents of the University of Michigan.

7. The regents of the university, and their successors in office, shall continue to constitute the body corporate, known by the name and title of "the Regents of the University of Michigan."

e. The regents of the university shall, at their first annual meeting, or as soon thereafter as may be, elect a president of the university, who shall be ez officio a

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member of their board, with the privilege of speaking, but not of voting. He shall preside at the meetings of the regents, and be the principal executive officer of the university. The board of regents shall have the general supervision of the university, and the direction and control of all expenditures from the university

interest fund.

9. There shall be elected at the general election in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, three members of a State board of education, one for two years, one for four years, and one for six years; and at each succeeding biennial election there shall be elected one member of such board, who shall hold his office for six years. The superintendent of public instruction shall be ex officio a member and secretary of such board. The board shall have the general supervision of the State Normal School, and their duties shall be prescribed by law.

10. Institutions for the benefit of those inhabitants who are deaf, dumb, blind or insane, shall always be fostered and supported.

11. The legislature shall encourage the promotion of intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement; and shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment of an agricultural school. The legislature may appropriate the twenty-two sections of salt spring lands now unappropriated, or the money arising from the sale of the same, where such lands have been already sold, and any land which may hereafter be granted or appropriated for such purpose, for the support and maintenance of such school, and may make the same a branch of the university for instruction in agriculture and the natural sciences connected therewith, and place the same under the supervision of the regents of the university.

12. The legislature shall also provide for the establishment of at least one librarian in each township; and all fines assessed and collected in the several counties and townships for any breach of the penal laws shall be exclusively applied to the support of such libraries.

FLORIDA.

Explored in 1512. Area, 59,268 square miles. Admitted as a State in March, 1845.

In the constitution presented to Congress in 1839, which was in force in 1860, article tenth pertains to education.

ARTICLE X.-EDUCATION

The proceeds of all lands granted by the United States for the use of schools shall remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be used for the benefit of said schools, and for no other purpose.

In the constitution of 1865 is the following:

ARTICLE X.-EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The proceeds of all lands for the use of schools and a seminary or seminaries of learning shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which,

together with all moneys accrued from any other source, applicable to the same object, shall be irrevocably appropriated to the use of schools and seminaries of learning, respectively, and to no other purpose.

2. The General Assembly shall take such measures as may be necessary to preserve from waste or damage all lands so granted or appropriated for the purpose of education.

TEXAS.

Settled in 1792. Area, 237,321 square miles. Admitted as a State in December, 1845.

Article tenth of the constitution of 1845 has the following in relation to education:

ARTICLE X.-EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of the State to make suitable provisions for the support and maintenance of public

schools.

SEC. 2. The legislature shall, as early as practicable, establish a system of free schools throughout the State; and as a basis for the endowment and support of said system, all the funds, lands, and other property heretofore set apart and appropriated, or that may hereafter be set apart and appropriated for the support and maintenance of public schools, shall constitute the public school fund; and said fund, and the income derived therefrom, shall be a perpetual fund exclusively for the education of all the white scholastic inhabitants of this State, and no law shall ever be made appropriating said fund to any other use or purpose whatever. And until such time as the legislature shall provide for the establishment of such system of public schools in the State, the fund thus created and the income derived therefrom, shall remain as a charge against the State, and be passed to the credit of the free common school fund.

SEC. 3. And all the alternate sections of land reserved by the State out of grants heretofore made, or that may hereafter be made, to railroad companies or other corporations of any nature whatever, for internal improvements, or for the development of the wealth and resources of the State, shall be set apart as a part of the perpetual school fund of the State; provided, that if at any time hereafter any portion of the public domain of this State shall be sold, and by virtue of said sale the jurisdiction over said land shall be vested in the United States government, in such event one-half of the proceeds derived from said sale shall become a part of the perpetual school fund of the State; and the legislature shall hereafter appropriate one-half of the proceeds resulting from all sales of the pubhe lands to the perpetual public school fund.

SEC. 4. The legislature shall provide, from time to time, for the sale of lands belonging to the perpetual public school fund, upon such time and terms as it may deem expedient; provided, that in cases of sale the preference shall be given to actual settlers; and, provided further, that the legislature shall have no power to grant relief to purchasers by granting further time for payment, but shall, in all cases, provide for the forfeiture of the land to the State for the benefit of a

perpetual public school fund; and that all interest accruing upon such sales shall be a part of the income belonging to the school fund, and subject to appropriation annually for educational purposes.

SEC. 5. The legislature shall have no power to appropriate or loan or invest, except as follows, any part of the principal sum of the perpetual school fund for any purpose whatever; and it shall be the duty of the legislature to appropriate annually the income which may be derived from said fund, for educational purposes, under such system as it may adopt; and it shall, from time to time, cause the principal sum now on hand and arising from sales of land, or from any other source, to be invested in the bonds of the United States of America, or the bonds of the State of Texas, or such bonds as the State may guarantee. SEC. 6. All public lands which have been heretofore, or may be hereafter, granted for public schools to the various counties or other political divisions in this State, shall be under the control of the legislature, and may be sold on such terms and under such regulations as the legislature shall by law prescribe; and the proceeds of the sale of said lands shall be added to the perpetual school fund of the State. But each county shall receive the full benefit of the interest arising from the proceeds of the sale of the lands granted to them respectively; provided that the lands already patented to the counties shall not be sold without the consent of such county or counties to which the lands may belong.

SEC. 7. The legislature may provide for the levying of a tax for educational purposes; provided, the taxes levied shall be distributed from year to year, as the same may be collected; and, provided, that all the sums arising from said tax which may be collected from Africans, or persons of African descent, shall be exclusively appropriated for the maintenance of a system of public schools for Africans and their children; and it shall be the duty of the legislature to encourage schools among these people.

SEC. 8. The moneys and lands heretofore granted to, or which may hereafter be granted for the endowment and support of one or more universities, shall constitute a special fund for the maintenance of said universities; and until the university or universities are located and commenced, the principal, and the interest arising from the investment of the principal, shall be invested in like manner, and under the same restrictions as provided for the investment and control of the perpetual public school fund, in sections four and five (4 and 5) in this article of the Constitution, and the legislature shall have no power to appropriate the university fund for any other purpose than that of the maintenance of said universities, and the legislature shall, at an early day, make such provisions, by law, as will organize and put into operation the university.

SEC. 9. The four hundred thousand acres of land that have been surveyed and set apart, under the provisions of a law approved 30th August, A. D. 1856, for the benefit of a lunatic asylum, a deaf and dumb asylum, a blind asylum, and an orphan asylum, shall constitute a fund for the support of such institutions, onefourth part for each; and the said fund shall never be diverted to any other purpose. The said lands may be sold, and the fund invested under the same rules and regulations as provided for the lands belonging to the school fund. The income of said fund only shall be applied to the support of such institutions; and, until so applied, shall be invested in the same manner as the principal.

SEC. 10. The governor, by and with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the senate, shall appoint an officer, to be styled the superintendent of public instruction. His term of office shall be four years, and his annual salary shall not be less than ($2,000) two thousand dollars, payable at stated times; and the gov ernor, comptroller, and superintendent of public education shall constitute a board to be styled a board of education, and shall have the general management and control of the perpetual school fund, and common schools, under such regulations as the legislature may hereafter prescribe.

SEC. 11. The several counties in this State which have not received their quantum of the lands for the purposes of education, shall be entitled to the same quantity heretofore appropriated by the Congress of the Republic of Texas, and the State, to other counties. And the counties which have not had the lands to which they are entitled for educational purposes located shall have the right to contract for the location, surveying, and procuring the patents for said lands, and of paying for the same with any portion of said lands so patented, not to exceed one-fourth