School District v. Wilson
| Decision Date | 13 October 1917 |
| Docket Number | 19093 |
| Citation | 164 N.W. 709,101 Neb. 683 |
| Parties | SCHOOL DISTRICT, APPELLEE, v. A. K. WILSON, APPELLANT |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the district court for Furnas county: ERNEST B. PERRY JUDGE. Reversed and dismissed.
Judgment of the district court reversed, and action dismissed.
J. L Rice and John Stevens, for appellant.
Lambe & Butler, contra.
This defendant, while residing in school district, No. 105, in Furnas county, which district had no high school and no facilities for high school education, sent his children of school age to the high school in the adjoining district No. 15. After they had attended that high school for some time, this action was brought by school district No. 15 to recover $ 3 a month, which it was alleged "the defendant impliedly and by operation of law agreed to pay the plaintiff for the said school privileges." The plaintiff recovered a judgment in the district court, and the defendant has appealed.
The plaintiff contends that under the provisions of the act of 1907 (Laws 1907, ch. 121) as amended by the act of 1909 (Laws 1909, ch. 122) there is an implied contract on the part of the parents of these children to pay the specified sum of $ 3 a month for tuition in the plaintiff's high school.
It has continually been the policy of this country to furnish free educational privileges to all children of school age by general taxation without regard to whether the parents or guardians of the children are situated so as to pay any part of such taxes. It is the established policy of the people of this state through their legislature to furnish free high school education to all the youth of the state without distinction or discrimination.
In 1907 the legislature provided for free public high school education. Laws 1907, ch. 121. The title of the act was: "An act to provide four years of free public high school education for all the youth of this state whose parents or guardians live in public school districts which maintain less than a four-year high school course of study, and to repeal all acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith." And the first section began with these words: "Provision is hereby made for four years of free public high school education for all the youth of this state whose parents or guardians live in public school districts which maintain less than a four-year high school course of study, on the following conditions, to wit." The conditions that follow are quite elaborately set forth and apply generally to all children of the state without regard to location or residence. At the same session of the legislature there was an act (Laws 1907, ch. 122) the object of which, according to the title, was: "To provide for free high school education, to establish and locate county high schools, * * * to levy a tax for the support and maintenance of such county high schools; to provide for a county high school fund and the allowance of claims against such fund." Under this act any county in the state "may establish a county high school on the conditions and in the manner" therein prescribed for the purpose of affording "all grades above the eighth grade." The act provided for submitting the question to the electors of the county as to whether such high school should be established.
In 1913 an act was passed (Laws 1913, ch. 252) entitled: "An act to provide for the organization of county high schools in counties not having a twelfth grade high school." The act provided: "The county board of any county in this state that does not have organized within the borders of such county a twelfth grade high school accredited to the state university, shall be deemed authorized and it shall become their duty" to take steps necessary to provide a board of regents for such high school.
In 1915 an act was passed (Laws 1915, ch. 120) repealing the provisions of the former act in regard to submitting the question to the voters, and providing: "A county high school shall be established by every county in which there is not now located a twelfth grade high school accredited to the state university in the manner hereinafter prescribed for the purpose of affording better educational facilities for pupils who have advanced beyond the eighth grade."
The title of the act of 1907 declares the purpose of the act, and all other legislation upon this subject keeps that purpose distinctly in view.
The Constitution provides that the subject of legislation must be clearly expressed in the title of the act. The object of this provision is to prevent surreptitious legislation. The people of the state would not expect legislation under this title that would deprive the children of indigent parents of the privilege of free high school education, and the provisions of the act of 1907 were in harmony with the promise held out in the title of the act. If an attempted amendment to this act should so far depart from the subject expressed in the title as to amount to surreptitious legislation, such amendment would be invalid under the constitutional provision. It is seriously contended by the defendant in this case that the amendment of 1909 is unconstitutional and void. This court is so reluctant to declare an act of the legislature unconstitutional that we have concluded that this case can be decided without determining that question.
In High School District v. Lancaster County, 60 Neb 147, 82 N.W. 380, the question was raised "whether the fact that under this act the taxpayers of such districts are compelled to pay the whole of the expense of educating pupils resident in such district, and in addition thereto the proportion of the expense of educating nonresident pupils, affects the question of the constitutionality of the act," but it was not found necessary in that case to determine that question. That...
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