123 Ga. 856 | Ga. | 1905
(After stating the facts.) 1 — 5. On February 7, 1877 (Acts 1877, p. 192), an act of the legislature was passed, the caption of which was, “An act to authorize the City of West Point, in Troup county, to organize a public school system independent of the public school system of the State of Georgia, and for other purposes.” The .first section provides, “That the City of West Point, in the county of Troup, be, and is hereby, authorized to organize a public school system independent of the public school system of this State; that said organization shall draw its pro rata share of all educational funds raised by this State, and that the chief executive officer of such organization shall make the same regular reports to the State school commissioner as are required from the county school commissioner of the public school system of this State.” Under this act an independent public school system was created for the City of West Point; its chief executive officer was required to make reports to the State' school commissioner, similar to those required from county school commissioners; and this independent organization was to draw its pro rata share of all educational funds raised
In 1887 an act was passed revising, amending, and consolidating the school laws of the State. Acts 1887, p. 68. In 1894 an act was passed to systematize the finances and increase the efficiency of the common schools. Acts 1894, p. 60. The laws relating to the public school system will be found codified in the Political Code of 1895, §§ 1338-1408. Several amendments to the school laws have been made since that code, but none of them are material to this controversy, and none are relied on by counsel, except a local act passed in 1904, which will be referred to hereafter. Section 1406 of the Political Code, which was codified from the act of 1894, reads as follows: “In those counties having local laws, where schools are sustained by local taxation for a period of five months or more, the State school commissioner shall, on the first day of January, April, July, and October of each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, notify the Governor of the amount of funds standing to the credit of each of such counties on the books of the treasurer on said dates, arising from the quarterly apportionments aforesaid, and thereupon the Governor shall issue his warrant for said sums, and the treasurer shall draw his checks for said sums without requiring the itemized statements as provided; and the State school commissioner shall immediately transmit said cheeks to the officer under the local system authorized to receive its funds, and the State school’ commissioner shall, in like manner, pay over to the proper officer under the school board of any town or city having ’ a school system sustained by local taxation for a period of five months or more, and to which he is now authorized by law to make direct apportionments, such proportion of the entire county fund as shown on the books of the treasurer as the school population of the town or city bears to the population of the county, as shown by the last school census: provided, that all children of school age resident in said county, and attending the public schools of
It is contended that the act of 1894 and the section of the code derived from it do not apply to the school system of West Point, because the act authorizes the State school commissioner to pay over to the proper officer “ under the school board of any town or city having a school system sustained by local taxation for a-period of five months or more, and to which he is now authorized by law to make direct apportionments.” It is not denied that West Point is a city having a school system sustained by taxation for a period of five months or more; but it is contended that the
It is contended that if the State school commissioner was authorized at any time to pay the pro rata share of the West Point school system directly to the local board, this was changed by the act of August 13, 1904. Acts 1904, p. 332. This act amended the act of 1877 by adding at the end of the first section the following words : “ Said officer shall file a copy of said reports with the county school commissioner of Troup county, and said public school system of West Point shall draw its pro rata share of the public school money apportioned each year to said county, and the county school commissioner shall pay the same over to the person authorized to receive it.” Plaintiffs reply by saying that this act is unconstitutional as being,a special law in a case provided for by the general laws above referred to. The presiding judge did not decide this constitutional .question, and therefore we deem it unnecessary to do so. Whether that act is constitutional or not makes no 'difference as to the mode of calculating the pro rata share of the local school system of West Point. It merely affects the question whether such share shall be paid directly to the local board, or whether it shall be paid to the county school commissioner, and by him to the local board. If,
On August 26, 1903, the Hon. John C. Hart, attorney-general, furnished to the State school commissioner an opinion in which he construed the law in regard to determining the pro rata share of local systems. See Opinions of Attorneys-general from January 1, 1891, to January 1, 1904, p. 387. In it he says: “The county is treated as a unit, and the local system should be treated as but another unit in a unit. ... I therefore advise, irrespective of any directions to the contrary in the act creating the local systems, that you adopt the rule of apportionment between the local system and the county, using as a basis ‘the proportion which the school population of the local system bears to the school population in the county.’ ” In this case it appears that there are local systems in Hogansville and LaG-range, and, in making his calculation as to the amount which shall be paid by the county school commissioner to the local system at West Point, the presiding judge excluded the school population in those two places. The acts creating those local systems are not before us, nor is any contention made in regard to them. We are led to infer that they receive their pro rata share directly and not through the county school commissioner, and therefore, that, inasmuch as the county school commissioner has been receiving the share of the West Point system along with that of the rest of the county, the calculation is made accordingly. No contention is made before this court that the exclusion of the school population of Hogansville and LaGrange in making the calculation is improper. The judge in granting the injunction also states that this judgment does not prohibit said county school commissioner from paying the West Point schools, in addition to such proportion, such sum as is provided by law for children outside of the city, attending the schools of West Point.
6. 7. It is urged, that, even if the method of division which is
As to the contention that the board of education of Troup county is a school court, it may be said that for certain purposes and within certain limits this is true. But it is a court of limited jurisdiction. Cheney v. Newton, 67 Ga. 477. It is a tribunal for hearing and determining.any matters of local controversy in reference to the construction and administration of the school law. Pol. Code, 1895, §1364. Thus the board has power as to the establishment and location of schools, the employment of teachers, and, until recently, in the selection of text-books; also in the preservation of order, enforcement of discipline, and the carrying out of the rules that may be established. Controversies occurring out of these and other similar matters are properly for the consideration of the county board of education. Pierce v. Beck, 61 Ga. 413. But they bave no power to unlawfully give to a separate local school system money which does not properly belong to it, nor to misapply public fund's arising from taxation. "Whether their jurisdiction to determine matters of locaj controversy in reference to the construction or administration of the school law would confer upon them authority to pass upon the constitutionality of an act of the legislature, or to render a judgment on that subject which would be binding as an adjudication, may well be doubted. Certainly they have no authority to grant an injunction to prevent the unlawful payment of money from being made. In the opinion filed by the presiding judge it was
Judgment affirmed.