184 Ind. 742 | Ind. | 1916
The school city of Terre Haute brought this action against Harrison School Township, both parties being school corporations located in Vigo County, Indiana. The action arose out of an erroneous distribution by the auditor and treasurer of Vigo County of the school revenues of the State, apportioned to that county for tuition purposes by the State superintendent of public instruction. In making the distribution of this fund among the school corporations of Vigo County, the auditor of that county apportioned it among them in such proportions as the number of children enumerated for school purposes in each of such school corporations bear to the whole number of school children enumerated in the county. By this means, an equal per capita distribution of this fund was made with reference to the school population of the county without regard to the congressional school revenue belonging to the several school corporations affected. The statute provides, “In making the said apportionment and distribution thereof, the auditor shall ascertain the amount of the congressional township school revenue be
The Congress of the United States gave the sixteenth section of land in each congressional township to the inhabitants thereof, for the support of common schools. These sections were of unequal value and on sale produced unequal amounts, even relating to the number of children of school age in such townships. The distribution of this fund is not, therefore, uniform; but, on account of the terms of the grant, the legislature of the State has no power to change it. State v. Springfield (1854), 6 Ind. 83; Quick v. Whitewater Tp. (1856), 7 Ind. 570. The provisions of the statute require the auditors of the several counties of the State to take into account the congressional school revenue of each of the school corporations in making the distribution of the other tuition revenue of the State, and to apportion the latter fund in such a way as to make the aggregate amount from the two sources in each of such school corporations equal in proportion to the number of children of school age enumerated therein. By failing to take into account the congressional school revenue of the several school corporations of the county, the auditor of Vigo County distributed to some of such school corporations more of the tuition revenue received from the State than they were entitled to receive under the statute, and to others for the samé reason, he distributed less than they were entitled to receive. This erroneous distribution began with the January distribution in 1904, and was
It has always been the policy of this State to encourage education, upon the theory that knowledge and learning generally diffused throughout a community is essential to the preservation of a free government. Constitution of Indiana, 1816, Art. IX, §1. Section 2 of the same article of our first Constitution made it the duty of the General Assembly to provide by law for a general system of education ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a state university, wherein tuition should be gratis and equally open to all. The Constitution of 1851 made it the duty of the legislature to provide for a general and uniform system of common free schools, and also provided for the creation, investment and preservation of our common-school fund, the income from which was to be inviolably appropriated to the support of common schools and to no other purpose. Based upon these provisions of the
There can be no doubt that public education is a function of the State. The State in its sovereign capacity has a direct interest in the enlightenment and mental development of its citizens to the end that free popular government may be preserved and may attain its highest efficiency. The school fund from which the tuition revenue is derived belongs to the State and it is administered by the State in the exercise of its sovereign power for its own benefit. The school children are incidentally benefited, but the primary purpose of the State in maintaining this fund and in expending its income in the education of its children is to develop and secure to the State a moral, intellectual and enlightened citizenship. While the fund and income therefrom constitute a trust, in the sense that it must be devoted to the single purpose under the provision of the Constitution — that of maintaining common schools — still it is not a trust fund in the full sense of the word. In ordinary trusts, the legal title to trust property rests in the trustee and the beneficial interest or equitable title is in the cestui que trust. Here the State holds the legal title to the fund and administers it through its agencies primarily for its own benefit. While the school children of the State are incidentally benefited by. the administration of the trust, they are not beneficiaries in the sense that they either collectively or individually have any equitable title therein.
Appellant relies with confidence on the eases of Jefferson School Tp. v. School Town (1892), 5 Ind. App. 586, 32 N. E. 807, and Center School Tp. v. State, ex rel. (1898), 150 Ind. 168, 49 N. E. 961, as sustaining its position. Neither of these cases involved any question relating to the tuition of the State. The first of these cases involved the right of a school town to recover a judgment against the school township for the amount of certain special school revenue and tuition revenue which was the proceeds-of a local tax levied by the town for such purposes and which had Been erroneously turned over by the county treasurer to the trustee of the township and had been expended by him for the township school corporation. In the second case, the State of Indiana on relation of the school board of the city of Indianapolis brought an action against the trustee of Center School Township to recover for its portion of the dog tax fund all of which had been received and expended by the trustee of the township. A judgment in favor of the relator was affirmed on appeal. In view of what has been said as to the dis
The demurrer to the amended complaint was properly sustained. Judgment affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 112 N. E. 514. See, also, under (1) 4 C. J.. 652, 747, 748; 3 Cyc 223; (2) 35 Cyc 825; (3) 35 Cyc 826; (4) 35 Cyc 822.