SEC. 5. The school lands shall not be sold unless such sale shall be authorized by a vote of the people at a general election; but, subject to revaluation every 5 years, they may be leased for any number of years, not exceeding 25, at a rate established by law.

SEC. 6. All money which shall be paid by persons as an equivalent for exemption from military duty; the clear proceeds of estrays, ownership of which shall vest in the taker-up; and the proceeds of fines for any breach of the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied in the several counties in which the money is paid or fines collected to the support of common schools.

SEC. 7. Provision shall be made by law for the establishment, at some eligible and central point, of a State university, for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences, including a normal and an agricultural department. All funds arising from the sale or rents of lands granted by the United States to the State for the support of a State university, and all other grants, donations, or bequests, either by the State or by individuals, for such purpose shall remain a perpetual fund, to be called the "university fund," the interest of which shall be appropriated to the support of the State university.

SEC. 8. No religious sect or sects shall ever control any part of the commonschool or university funds of the State.

SEC. 9. The State superintendent of public instruction, secretary of state, and attorney general shall constitute a board of commissioners for the management and investment of the school funds. Any two of said commissioners shall be a quorum.

ART. VII, SEC. 1. Institutions for the benefit of the insane, blind, and deaf and dumb, and such other benevolent institutions as the public good may require, shall be fostered and supported by the State, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law. Trustees of such benevolent institutions as may be hereafter created shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate; ART. XI, SEC. 1. *

All property appropriated and used exclusively for

municipal, literary, educational, scientific, or charitable purposes shall be exempted from taxation

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KENTUCKY.

SEC. 5. No preference shall ever be given by law to any religious sect, society, or denomination; * ** nor shall any man be compelled to send his child to any school to which he may be conscientiously opposed;

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SEC. 59. The general assembly shall not pass local or special acts concerning any of the following subjects, or for any of the following purposes, namely: To provide for the management of common schools. SEC. 60. * * common schools, * * shall be enacted to take effect upon the approval of any other authority than the general assembly, unless otherwise expressly provided in this constitution.

No law, except such as relates to

SEC. 91. A treasurer ** and superintendent of public instruction shall be elected by the qualified voters of the State at the same time the governor is elected, for the term of four years, each of whom shall be at least 30 years of age at the time of his election and shall have been a resident citizen of the State at least two years next before his election. The duties of all these officers shall be such as may be prescribed by law,

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SEC. 93. The treasurer, * superintendent of public instruction and register of the land office shall be ineligible to reelection for the succeeding four years after the expiration of the term for which they shall have been elected. The duties and responsibilities of these officers shall be prescribed by law, and all fees collected by any of said officers, shall be covered into the treasury.

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SEC. 95. The election under this constitution for ** * superintendent of public instruction, shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1895, and the same day every four years thereafter. SEC. 157. The tax rate of cities, towns, counties, taxing districts, and other municipalities, for other than school purposes, shall not, at any time, exceed the following rates upon the value of the taxable property therein, viz: For all towns or cities having a population of 15,000 or more, $1.50 on the $100; for all

towns or cities having less than 15,000 and not less than 10,000, $1 on the $100; for all towns or cities having less than 10,000, 75 cents on the $100; and for counties and taxing districts, 50 cents on the $100; unless it should be necessary to enable such city, town, county, or taxing district to pay the interest on, and provide a sinking fund for the extinction of, indebtedness contracted before the adoption of this constitution. No county, city, town, taxing district, or other municipality shall be authorized or permitted to become indebted, in any manner or for any purpose, to an amount exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year, without the assent of two-thirds of the voters thereof, voting at an election to be held for that purpose; and any indebtedness contracted in violation of this section shall be void. Nor shall such contract be enforceable by the person with whom made; nor shall such municipality ever be authorized to assume the same.

SEC. 158. The respective cities, towns, counties, taxing districts, and municipalities shall not be authorized or permitted to incur indebtedness to an amount, including existing indebtedness, in the aggregate exceeding the following-named maximum percentages on the value of the taxable property therein, to be estimated by the assessment next before the last assessment previous to the incurring of the indebtedness, viz: Cities of the first and second classes, and of the third class having a population exceeding 15,000, 10 per centum; cities of the third class having a population of less than 15,000, and cities and towns of the fourth class, 5 per centum; cities and towns of the fifth and sixth classes, 3 per centum; and counties, taxing districts, and other municipalities, 2 per centum: Provided, Any city, town, county, taxing district, or other municipality may contract an indebtedness in excess of such limitations when the same has been authorized under laws in force prior to the adoption of this constitution, or when necessary for the completion of and payment for a public improvement undertaken and not completed and paid for at the time of the adoption of this constitution: And provided further, If, at the time of the adoption of this constitution the aggregate indebtedness, bonded or floating, of any city, town, county, taxing district, or other municipality, including that which it has been or may be authorized to contract as herein provided, shall exceed the limit herein prescribed, then no such city or town shall be authorized or permitted to increase its indebtedness in an amount exceeding 2 per centum, and no such county, taxing district, or other municipality, in an amount exceeding 1 per centum, in the aggregate upon the value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained as herein provided, until the aggregate of its indebtedness shall have been reduced below the limit herein fixed, and thereafter it shall not exceed the limit, unless in case of emergency, the public health, or safety should so require. Nothing herein shall prevent the issue of renewal bonds or bonds to fund the floating indebtedness of any city, town, county, taxing district, or other municipality.

SEC. 159. Whenever any county, city, town, taxing district, or other municipality is authorized to contract an indebtedness, it shall be required, at the same time, to provide for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on said indebtedness, and to create a sinking fund for the payment of the principal thereof, within not more than 40 years from the time of contracting the same.

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SEC. 170. There shall be exempt from taxation institutions of education not used or employed for gain by any person or corporation, and the income of which is devoted solely to the cause of education;

SEC. 183. The general assembly shall, by appropriate legislation, provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the State.

SEC. 184. The bond of the Commonwealth issued in favor of the board of education for the sum of $1,327,000 shall constitute one bond of the Commonwealth in favor of the board of education, and this bond and the $73,500 of the stock in the Bank of Kentucky, held by the board of education, and its proceeds, shall be held inviolate for the purpose of sustaining the system of common schools. The interest and dividends of said fund, together with any sum which may be produced by taxation or otherwise for purposes of commonschool education, shall be appropriated to the common schools, and to no other purpose. No sum shall be raised or collected for education other than in common schools until the question of taxation is submitted to the legal voters, and the majority of the votes cast at said election shall be in favor of such taxation: Provided, The tax now imposed for educational purposes, and for the endowment and maintenance of the agricultural and mechanical college, shall remain until changed by law.

SEC. 185. The general assembly shall make provision, by law, for the payment of the interest of said school fund, and may provide for the sale of the stock in the Bank of Kentucky; and in case of a sale of all or any part of said stock, the proceeds of sale shall be invested by the sinking-fund commissioners in other good interest-bearing stocks or bonds, which shall be subject to sale and reinvestment, from time to time, in like manner, and with the same restrictions, as provided with reference to the sale of the said stock in the Bank of Kentucky.

SEC. 186. Each county in the Commonwealth shall be entitled to its proportion of the school fund on its census of pupil children for each school year; and if the pro rata share of any school district be not called for after the second school year, it shall be covered into the treasury and be placed to the credit of the school fund for general apportionment the following school year. The surplus now due the several counties shall remain a perpetual obligation against the Commonwealth for the benefit of said respective counties, for which the Commonwealth shall execute its bond, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per centum per annum, payable annually to the counties respectively entitled to the same, and in the proportion to which they are entitled, to be used exclusively in aid of common schools.

SEC. 187. In distributing the school fund no distinction shall be made on account of race or color, and separate schools for white and colored children shall be maintained.

SEC. 188. So much of any moneys as may be received by the Commonwealth from the United States under the recent act of Congress refunding the direct tax shall become a part of the school fund, and be held as provided in section 184; but the general assembly may authorize the use by the Commonwealth of the moneys so received or any part thereof, in which event a bond shall be executed to the board of education for the amount so used which bond shall be held on the same terms and conditions, and subject to the provisions of section 184 concerning the bond therein referred to.

SEC. 189. No portion of any fund or tax now existing, or that may hereafter be raised or levied for educational purposes, shall be appropriated to or used by or in aid of any church, sectarian, or denominational school.

LOUISIANA.

ART. 48. The general assembly shall not pass any local or special law on the following specified subjects:

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Regulating the management of public schools, the building or repairing of schoolhouses, and the raising of money for such purposes. *

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ART. 53. No money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect, or denomination of religion, or in aid of any priest, preacher, minister, or teacher thereof, as such, and no preference shall ever be given to nor any discrimination made against any church, sect, or creed of religion or any form of religious faith or worship; nor shall any appropriation be made for private, charitable, or benevolent purposes to any person or community: Provided, This shall not apply to the State asylum for the insane and State institution for the deaf and dumb, and State institution for the instruction of the blind, and the charity hospitals and public charitable institutions conducted under State authority.

ART. 55. The general appropriation bill shall embrace nothing but appropriations for the ordinary expenses of the Government, interest on the public debt, public schools, and public charities.

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ART. 60. No educational or charitable institution, other than the State institutions now existing, or expressly provided for in this constitution, shall be established by the State, except upon a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the general assembly.

ART. 198. No person less than 60 years of age shall be permitted to vote at any election in this State who shall not, in addition to the qualifications above prescribed, have paid on or before the 31st day of December of each year, for the two years preceding the year in which he offers to vote, a poll tax of $1 per annum, to be used exclusively in aid of the public schools of the parish in which such tax shall have been collected; which tax is hereby imposed on every male resident of this State between the age of 21 and 60 years.

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ART. 227. The taxing power shall be exercised only to carry on and maintain the government of the State and the public institutions thereof, to educate the children of the State.

ART. 230. The following shall be exempt from taxation, and no other, viz: * All charitable institutions, all buildings and property used exclusively for public monuments or historical collections, colleges, and other school purposes, the real and personal estate of any public library, and that of any other library association used by or connected with such library, all books and philosophical apparatus, and all paintings and statuary of any company or association, kept in a public hall: Provided, The property so exempted be not leased for purposes of private or corporate profit or income. *

ART. 231. The general assembly shall levy an annual poll tax of $1 upon every male inhabitant in the State between the ages of 21 and 60 years, for the maintenance of the public schools in the parishes where collected.

ART. 232. The State tax on property for all purposes whatever, except those otherwise provided for in this constitution, including expense of government, schools, levees, public roads, and the public debt and interest thereon, shall not exceed, in any one year, 6 mills on the dollar of its assessed valuation, unless additional tax is required under the terms of the article of this constitution relating to public debt; and except as otherwise provided in this constitution, no parish, municipal, or public-board tax for all purposes whatsoever, shall exceed in any one year 10 mills of the dollar of assessed valuation: Provided, That for giving additional support to public schools and for the purpose of erecting and constructing public buildings, public schoolhouses, bridges, wharves, levees, sewerage work, fire departments, and buildings, and other works of permanent public improvement, the title to which shall be in the public, and any parish, municipal corporation, ward or school district may levy a special tax in excess of said limitation, whenever the rate of such increase and the number of years it is to be levied and the purpose for which the tax is intended shall have been submitted to a vote of the property taxpayers of such parish, municipality, ward, or school district, entitled to vote under the laws of the State, and a majority of the same in number and in amount voting at such election shall have voted therefor.

ART. 248. There shall be free public schools for the white and colored races, separately established by the general assembly, throughout the State, for the education of all the children of the State between the ages of 6 and 18 years: Provided, That where kindergarten schools exist, children between the ages of 4 and 6 may be admitted into said schools, all funds raised by the State for the support of public schools, except the poll tax, shall be distributed to each parish in proportion to the number of children therein between the ages of 6 and 18 years. The general assembly, at its next session, shall provide for the enumeration of educable children.

ART. 249. There shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State a superintendent of public education, who shall hold his office for the term of four years, and until his successor is qualified. His duties shall be prescribed by law, and he shall receive an annual salary of $5,000, payable monthly, on his

warrant.

ART. 250. The general assembly shall provide for the creation of a state board and parish board of public education. The parish boards shall elect a parish superintendent of public education for their respective parishes, whose qualifications shall be fixed by the legislature, and who shall be ex officio secretary of the parish board. The salary of the parish superintendent shall be provided for by the general assembly, to be paid out of the public-school funds accruing to the respective parishes.

ART. 251. The general exercises in the public schools shall be conducted in the English language: Provided, That the French language may be taught in those parishes or localities where the French language predominates, if no additional expense is incurred thereby.

ART. 252. The funds derived from the collection of the poll tax shall be applied exclusively to the maintenance of the public schools as organized under this constitution, and shall be applied exclusively to the support of the public schools in the parish in which the same shall be collected, and shall be accounted for and paid by the collecting officer directly to the treasurer of the local school board.

ART. 253. No funds raised for the support of the public schools of the State shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any private or sectarian schools.

ART. 254. The school funds of the State shall consist of: First. Not less than 14 mills of the 6 mills tax levied and collected by the State. Second. The proceeds of taxation for school purposes as provided by this constitution. Third. The interest on the proceeds of all public lands heretofore granted or to be granted by the United States for the support of the public schools, and the revenue derived from such lands as may still remain unsold. Fourth. Of lands and other property heretofore or hereafter bequeathed, granted, or donated to the State for school purposes. Fifth. All funds and property, other than unimproved lands, bequeathed or granted to the State, not designated for any other purpose. Sixth. The proceeds of vacant estates falling under the law to the State of Louisiana. Seventh. The legislature may appropriate to the same fund the proceeds of public lands not designated or set apart for any other purpose, and shall provide that every parish may levy a tax for the public schools therein, which shall not exceed the entire State tax: Provided, That with such a tax the whole amount of parish taxes shall not exceed the limits of parish taxation fixed by this constitution. The city of New Orleans shall make such appropriation for the support, maintenance, and repair of the public schools of said city as it may deem proper, but not less than eight-tenths of 1 mill for any one year; and said schools shall also continue to receive from the board of liquidation of the city debt the amounts to which they are now entitled under the constitutional amendment adopted in the year 1892.

That the police juries of the several parishes and boards of trustees and municipal councils of incorporated cities and towns (the parish of Orleans excepted) shall levy, collect, and turn over to the parish school boards of their respective parishes for the support of the public schools of their respective parishes, cities, or towns, the proceeds of at least 3 mills of the annual tax which they are empowered to levy on each dollar of the assessed valuation of the property thereof: Provided, That cities and towns that are not exempted by the terms of their charters from the payment of parish taxes and which are subjected to the similar burdens of taxation as are the parishes shall not pay this tax, as same is included in the taxes imposed by the parish in which the town is situated, "unless the parish boards of school directors of that parish certify that the needs of the schools can be met by a smaller levy of such taxes." ART. 255. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, founded upon the land grants of the United States to endow a seminary of learning, and a college for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts now established and located in the city of Baton Rouge, is hereby recognized; and all revenues derived and to be derived from the seminary fund, the agricultural and mechanical college fund, and other funds or lands donated or to be donated by the United States to the State of Louisiana for the use of a seminary of learning or of a college for the benefit of agriculture or the mechanic arts, shall be appropriated exclusively to the maintenance and support of said Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College; and the general assembly shall make such additional appropriations as may be necessary for its maintenance and support and improvement, and for the establishment, in connection with said institution, of such additional scientific or literary departments as the public necessities and the well-being of the people of Louisiana may require.

The Tulane University, located in New Orleans, is hereby recognized as created and to be developed in accordance with the provisions of legislative act No. 43, approved July 5, 1884, and, by approval of the electors, made part of the constitution of the State.

ART. 255. SEC. 1. Be it resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, two-thirds of all members elected to each house concurring, That the legislature may appropriate to the same funds the proceeds of public lands not designated or set apart for any other purpose, and shall provide that each parish may levy a tax for the public schools therein, which shall not exceed the entire State tax: Provided, That with such tax the whole amount of parish taxes shall not exceed the limits of parish taxation fixed by this constitution. The city of New Orleans shall make such appropriation for the support, maintenance, and repair of the public schools of said city as it may deem proper, but not less than eight-tenths of 1 mill for any one year; and said schools shall also continue to receive from the board of liquidation of the city debt the amounts to which they are now entitled under the constitution amendment adopted in the year 1892: Provided, That this shall not apply to cities that under legislative authority now conduct, maintain, and support