Ingram v. Payton

• Decision Date: 08 September 1966
• Docket Number: No. 23557,23557
• Citation: 150 S.E.2d 825,222 Ga. 503
• Parties: John F. INGRAM, Jr., et al. v. Donald E. PAYTON, et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 825

150 S.E.2d 825

222 Ga. 503

John F. INGRAM, Jr., et al. v. Donald E. PAYTON, et al.

No. 23557.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Sept. 8, 1966.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 22, 1966.

Syllabus by the Court

1. For reasons stated in the opinion, the proviso clause of Section 22(B), Subparagraph (1) of the 'Minimum Foundation Program of Education Act' (Ga.L.1964, pp. 3-49; Code Ann. § 32-622) providing 'that the equalized adjusted school property tax digest of each independent school system located within a county shall be calculated on the basis of 133 1/3 per cent of the county equalized adjusted school property tax digest of all property located within the territory of the independent school system' is not unconstitutional.

2. The said proviso clause of Section 22(B) Subparagraph (1) of the 1964 'Minimum Foundation Program of Education Act' applies to independent school systems whether they lie entirely within a single county or extend across county lines, and such application does not result in discrimination and disparity of fiscal treatment among the independent school systems nor is there any inequality created thereby.

Thomas O. Davis, Decatur, for appellants.

Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Alfred L. Evans, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Atlanta, Murphey Candler, Jr., Decatur, for appellees.

A. C. Latimer, J. Lee Perry, Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, James P. Groton, Clay C. Long, Atlanta, for parties at interest, not parties to record.

ALMAND, Justice.

In 1964 the Georgia General Assembly enacted a law entitled 'Minimum Foundation Program of Education Act' (Ga.L.1964, pp. 3-49). Section 2 of this Act expressed the legislative intent. 'The General Assembly of Georgia, recognizing the importance and extreme necessity of providing improved educational opportunity for all Georgians-children, youth, and adults; of establishing equality of educational opportunity for Georgia's children and youth regardless of where they may live or what their station in life may be; of establishing and maintaining minimum standards for public schools so that every Georgia child and youth can attend an accredited public school; of improving the quality of education through continued development and improvement of balanced programs designed to provide academic and occupational preparation of Georgia's children and youth for adult life in this age; of developing a public school program that will attract, hold and fully utilize competent professional personnel in the public school systems of this State; of establishing and maintaining adequate planning, research and experimentation programs so as to assure continued future improvement of public school education in Georgia; of providing for better efficiency in the operation of public schools, elimination of waste, and better utilization of existing school services and facilities; of the need to finance adequately the improvement of Georgia's public education program and facilities; of the need to assure Georgia's children and youth of receiving an improved minimum level of education; and of the need for providing a method whereby all Georgians shall pay their fair share of the cost of such program, and recognizing fully its responsibility to provide a means whereby the foregoing needs might more readily be met, does hereby establish a State Minimum Foundation Program for the education of Georgia's children and youth.'

Section 6 provides that the several county, independent and area public school systems in Georgia shall be local units of school administration. Section 3 provides that the State Board of Education shall adopt rules and regulations necessary for carrying out the provisions of the law, and Section 4 vests in the State Superintendent of Schools the responsibility of administering the law.

The Act provides two separate methods or procedures to calculate the financial ability of local units of school administration to raise funds in support of the local unit's minimum foundation program for education. One method applies to each independent school system located within a county, and the other method or procedure applies to all other local units of school administration. Section 22(B) of the Act, which provides for these procedures, is as follows: 'The financial ability of each local unit of administration to raise funds in support of the local unit's minimum foundation program of education for the 1965-66 school year, commencing on July 1, 1965, and for each year thereafter shall be calculated as follows:

'(1) Multiply the percent that the equalized adjusted school property tax digest of each county is of the total equalized adjusted school property tax digest for the State as a whole by that portion of the estimated cost of the State-wide minimum foundation program for the fiscal school year to be paid by local funds, calculated in accordance with provisions of subparagraph (2) of this Section. The sum obtained by this multiplication shall be the amount of funds to be raised within a county in support of the cost of providing a minimum foundation program of education in the public schools of the county determined in accordance with the local financial ability of the county. Where two or more counties have merged or consolidated into a single area public school system, the sum obtained by the foregoing multiplication for each of the counties within the resulting area public school system shall be combined and the combined sum shall be the amount of funds to be raised within the area public school system in support of the cost of providing a minimum foundation program of education in the public schools of the area public school system determined in accordance with the local financial ability of the counties within such school system. In those counties of the State which have more than one school system within the county, the amount of local funds to be put up by the several local units of administration within the county in support of the cost of providing a minimum foundation program of education in the public schools of the local unit of administration shall be determined by multiplying the per cent that the equalized adjusted school property tax digest of the respective local unit of administration is of the total equalized adjusted school property tax digest of all local units of administration in the county by the amount of local funds to be raised by or within the county in support of the cost of providing a minimum foundation program of education in the public schools of the county, provided, however, that the equalized adjusted school property tax digest of each independent school system located within a county shall be calculated on the basis of 133 1/3 per cent of the county equalized adjusted school property tax digest of all property located within the territory of the independent school system.

'(2) The State Board of Education shall determine the portion of the estimated cost of the State-wide minimum foundation program to be paid by local funds by multiplying the estimated cost of the State-wide minimum foundation program for the school year by the percentage share of the cost of such State-wide program to be paid by local funds on a State-wide basis. Commencing with the 1965-66 school year, beginning on July 1, 1965, the estimated cost of the State-wide minimum foundation program shall be shared on a State-wide basis of eighty-four per cent (84%) State funds and sixteen per cent (16%) local funds, provided, however, that the share of the estimated cost of the State-wide minimum foundation program to be paid by local funds shall thereafter be increased at the beginning of each subsequent fiscal school year by one percentage point per year for four years, so that commencing with the 1969-1970 fiscal school year the State-wide cost of the minimum foundation program shall be shared on the basis of eighty per cent (80%) State funds and twenty per cent (20%) local funds.

'(3) The sum of the equalized adjusted school property tax digest of each county in the State, and of each independent school system located within the several counties in the State, and the sum of the equalized adjusted school property tax digest for the State as a whole, shall be furnished to the State Board of Education by the State Auditor on or before February 1 of 1965 and each year thereafter.'

On February 15, 1966, John F. Ingram, Jr. and others, as members of the City of Decatur Board of Education, and Carl G. Renfroe, Superintendent of the City of...