) UNIVERSITY CALIFORITY COMMON SCHOOLS. EDUCATIONAL PROVISIONS OF THE ORGANIC ACT. SECTION 34. And be it further enacted, That when the lands in the said territory shall be surveyed under the direction of the government of the United States, preparatory to bringing the same into market, sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township in said territory shall be and the same are hereby reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in said territory and in the states and territories hereafter to be erected out of the same. Approved May 30, 1854. EDUCATIONAL PROVISIONS OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION. ARTICLE II. SEC. 23. The legislature, in providing for the formation and regulation of schools, shall make no distinction between the rights of males and females. ARTICLE VI. SECTION 1. The state superintendent of public instruction shall have the general supervision of the common-school funds and educational interests of the state, and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law. A superintendent of public instruction shall be elected in each county, whose term of office shall be two years, and whose duty and compensation shall be prescribed by law. SEC. 2. The legislature shall encourage the promotion of intellectual, moral, scientific and agricultural improvement, by establishing a uniform system of common schools and schools of higher grade, embracing normal, preparatory, collegiate, and university departments. SEC. 3. The proceeds of all lands that have been or may be granted by the United States to the state, for the support of schools, and the five hundred thousand acres of land granted to the new states under an act of congress distributing the proceeds of public lands among the several states of the Union, approved September 4, A. D. 1841, and all estates of persons dying without heir or will, and such per cent. as may be granted by congress on the sale of lands in this state, shall be the common property of the state, and shall be a perpetual school fund, which shall not be diminished, but the interest of which, together with all the rents of the lands, and such other means as the legislature may provide by tax or otherwise, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of common schools. SEC. 4. The income of the state school funds shall be disbursed annually, by order of the state superintendent, to the several county treasurers, and thence to the treasurers of the several school districts, in equitable proportion to the number of children and youth resident therein, between the ages of five and twenty-one years: Provided, That no school district in which a common school has not been maintained at least three months in each year, shall be entitled to receive any portion of such funds. SEC. 5. The school lands shall not be sold unless such sale be authorized by a vote of the people at a general election; but, subject to revaluation every five years, they may be leased for any number of years not exceeding twenty-five, 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. Provisions 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 agricultural department. All funds arising from the sale 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 common-school 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. [Constitution ratified by the people, October 4, 1859.] SEC. 5. No provision has been made by law for the leasing of school lands. EDUCATIONAL PROVISIONS OF THE ACT OF ADMISSION. SEC. 3. * * * First: That sections numbered sixteen and thirtysix, in every township of public lands in said state, and where either of said sections, or any part thereof, has been sold or otherwise been disposed of, other lands, equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to said state for the use of schools. Second: That seventy-two sections of land shall be set apart and reserved for the use and support of a state university, to be selected by the governor of said state, subject to the approval of the commissioner of the general land office, and to be appropriated and applied in such manner as the legislature of said state may prescribe for the purpose aforesaid, but for no other purpose. Approved January 29, 1861. |