Education in The Constitution
The first piece of legislation to offer free education to all children, regardless of race is Mississippi’s Constitution of 1868. The Constitution established a “uniform system of free public schools, by taxation or otherwise, for all children between the ages of five and twenty-one years.”
Legislation was passed in 1870 and created school districts under the supervision of an elected State Superintendent of Education and appointed country superintendents, as well. Areas of a population with at least 5000 were permitted to establish separate schools districts and extend the school term to seven months.
The Constitution also provided the following features in its legislation to establish a public education system: 1. Administration: the state superintendent of public education must be elected to provide “general supervision of the commons schools and the educations interests of the State.” A State Board of Education shall also be made up of the State Superintendent, the Attorney General and the Secretary of State. 2. School Term: The school year should also be at least four months. Any county that does not abide by the guidelines presented in the legislation should forgo its share of school funding and taxes. 3. Funding: The common schools were funded from a combination of revenue earned from the sixteenth sections lands, and excise tax on alcohol, military exemption fees and public and private donations specifically designed for public education. Funding was then invested in the United State bonds and the interest collected was allotted to support school systems. A poll tax was also levies to aid in funding education.
The Constitution also specifically state that public schools or its funds were not to be controlled by any religious group and it was forbidden for public schools to convert in a parochial school.
Read more about this topic: Education In Mississippi
Famous quotes containing the words education and/or constitution:
“One is rarely an impulsive innovator after the age of sixty, but one can still be a very fine orderly and inventive thinker. One rarely procreates children at that age, but one is all the more skilled at educating those who have already been procreated, and education is procreation of another kind.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“Without the Constitution and the Union, we could not have attained the result; but even these, are not the primary cause of our great prosperity. There is something back of these, entwining itself more closely about the human heart. That something, is the principle of “Liberty to all”Mthe principle that clears the path for all—gives hope to all—and, by consequence, enterprize [sic], and industry to all.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)