25 Colo. App. 510 | Colo. Ct. App. | 1914
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a suit brought October 10, 1910, by the defendant in error, hereinafter called the plaintiff, to recover from the defendant school district a sum of money charged to it by plaintiff as tuition fees for certain pupils,
The-defendant contends (1) that the statute upon which defendant’s liability is predicated is unconstitutional; (2) that the district court had not jurisdiction to determine the controversy; (3) that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.
I.
The statute involved is subdivision fifteenth of section 6655, Mills’ Ann. Stats. 1912, Sess. Laws 1909, p. 489, the particular portion necessary for consideration being as follows:
“ Provided, further, that whenever any pupil outside a high school district desires to attend a high school within the county where such pupil resides, and such pupil shall possess the necessary qualifications for admittance thereto, the necessary tuition fees charged for the attendance of such pupil by said high school shall be paid by*513 the school district in which snch pnpil resides not exceeding $2.50 per month.”
This subdivision, in its amended form as quoted, was approved April 23, 1909. It is first asserted that this subdivision and this proviso violates section 2 of article IX of the. constitution, which reads:
“The general assembly shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment and maintenance of a thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state, wherein all residents of the state, between the ages of six and twenty-one years, may be educated gratuitously. One or more public schools shall be maintained in each school district within the state, ’ ’ etc.
Under this provision of the constitution, it is contended that no charge for tuition, whether made directly or indirectly, is permissible, and that the charge of tuition to the school district is an indirect charge upon the pupil or his parents, and so within the inhibition of the constitution. We think this contention is without merit. The constitutional provision was adopted in 1876. The general assembly of 1877 passed an act to carry into effect such provisions of the constitution, which act has from time to time been amended to keep pace with progressive thought in educational matters and to furnish the high standard of scholarship now required to be provided for by public schools. A public school is defined as a school that derives its support entirely or in part from moneys raised by general state, county or district tax. — Gr. L. ’77, section 2521; sec. 6776, Mills’ Ann. Stats.; sec. 6008, Eev. Stats. 1908. A free public school, within the contemplation of the constitution, is one to which any resident of the state, between the ages of six and twenty-one years, shall be admitted, and there be educated gratuitously, that is to say, at public expense, or from the public funds provided for that purpose. By such constitutional provision the school district is made the educa
It is also urged that the bill approved April 23, 1909, violates section 21 of article V of the constitution, in that the subject matter contained in the proviso quoted was not clearly expressed in the title of said act, and that the bill contained more than one subject. The title of the bill is as follows:
“An act to amend subdivision fifteen of section five thousand nine hundred and twenty-five of the Revised Statutes of Colorado for the year 1908, the same being a part of section sixty of chapter one hundred and twenty-four, in relation to schools.”
The title of the act mentions but one subject, and that is the amendment of subdivision fifteen of the section named. The subject of that subdivision, before amendment, was the right of a pupil resident in one district to attend school in another district. No other subject is contained in the subdivision as amended. It is true that additional and different conditions under which a pupil may attend school in another district are contained in the subdivision , as amended, including the payment of tuition by the district from, which he comes, and that high school districts are specifically mentioned; but the subject matter of the original subdivision is not changed, and only one subject is contained in the bill. The details are but incidental to that subject. A similar provision, differing only in details, was contained in the act of 1877, copied almost literally from the territorial act of 1861.
II.
It is also urged that the district court was without jurisdiction to try the issues made by the complaint. That contention is based upon the school law which pro
III.
The contention is made by plaintiff in error that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action because it does not allege that the $2.50 per month charged for attendance of each pupil was the “necessary tuition fee, ’’ and did not allege that the pupils admitted to the high school possessed “the necessary qualifications for admittance thereto.” What constitutes a necessary tuition fee is not defined by the statute; that is a matter to be determined by the trial court when properly presented. An amendment made in 1913 seems to contain an interpretation of that statute, in the proviso, that no high school shall be required to admit pupils
Perceiving no substantial error, the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.