State Teachers' College v. Morris

• Decision Date: 14 November 1932
• Docket Number: 29934
• Parties: STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE v. MORRIS
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

144 So. 374

165 Miss. 758

STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE v. MORRIS

No. 29934

Supreme Court of Mississippi

November 14, 1932

(In Banc.)

1. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

In order for school to be within system of "free public schools" required by constitution, establishment and control must be vested in public officials charged with duty of establishing and supervising that system of schools (Constitution 1890, section 201).

2. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

State teachers' college held not part of state's uniform system of free public schools (Const. 1890. section 201).

3. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

Legislature could establish and support, as part of teachers' college, practice schools teaching branches of learning within common school curriculum (Const. 1890, section 201; Code 1930, sections 7241-7246).

4. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

"Schools," within constitutional provision respecting establishment of schools of higher grade, are those which are part of uniform system of free public schools supported from common school fund (Const. 1890, section 201).

5. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

Legislature's power to establish colleges and universities does not rest on constitutional grant (Const. 1890, sections 201, 208).

6. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

"Funds" in constitutional provision prohibiting appropriation of funds to sectarian schools or schools not conducted as free schools, means public funds of some character (Const. 1890 section 208).

7. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

General words in constitution must be construed with reference to subject-matter in minds of convention adopting constitution.

8. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

Subject-matter in mind of convention adopting constitution must be ascertained from words used in constitution, their context purpose sought to be accomplished, and circumstances surrounding convention.

9. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

Same meaning attaches to word or phrase wherever it occurs in constitution, unless contrary clearly appears.

10. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

Word "school" in constitutional provision prohibiting appropriation of funds to sectarian schools or schools not conducted as free schools does not include state owned and supported schools (Const. 1890, section 208).

11. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

Long-continued construction placed on constitutional provision by legislature and states' executive officers could not be departed from unless manifestly incorrect.

12. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS.

State teachers' college may charge students attending its demonstration and practice school with tuition (Code 1930 sections 7241-7246; Const. 1890, section 201).

HON. W J. PACK, Judge.

APPEAL from circuit court of Forrest county, HON. W. J. PACK, Judge.

Action by the State Teachers' College against F. M. Morris. From a judgment dismissing the suit, plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Reversed and remanded.

Geo. T. Mitchell, former Attorney-General, and W. A. Shipman and W. D. Conn, Jr., Assistant Attorney-General, for appellant.

Forrest M. Morris, of Hattiesburg, for appellee.

Briefs of counsel not found.

Smith, C. J., Ethridge, J. dissenting.

OPINION

Smith, C. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the court below sustaining a demurrer to the plaintiff's declaration and dismissing its suit. The allegations of the declaration are, in substance, as follows:

The State Teachers' College, the plaintiff and appellant here, is a state owned and supported college, situated within the boundaries of the city of Hattiesburg. A part of its activities include the operation of a teachers' demonstration and practice school established by it under the provisions of sections 7241-7246, Code 1930. In 1930, the Legislature appropriated, by chapter 167 of the Laws of that session, twenty thousand dollars out of any funds in the state treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the support of the State Teachers' College demonstration and practice school for 1930, and a like amount for 1931.

The defendant, Morris, appellee here, is the father of two children who attended the appellant's teachers' demonstration and practice school during the scholastic years 1930 and 1931, one being in the third, and the other in the fifth, grade thereof. The city of Hattiesburg refused to pay the appellant any tuition for students residing within its separate school district attending the appellant's teachers' demonstration and practice school, and, consequently, the defendant, Morris, is liable for the payment of the tuition of four dollars per month due plaintiff by his children, amounting, in the aggregate, to seventy-two dollars, for which sum a judgment was prayed.

The grounds of the appellee's demurrer as set forth therein are as follows:

"First. That said suit against the defendant is predicated upon section 3, c. 218, of the Laws of 1930, and that said section insofar as it undertakes to make the child or the parent liable for a tuition is in conflict with section 201 of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi.

"Second. That all of chapter 218, Laws of 1930, is a discrimination against a uniform system of free public schools, and is, therefore, in violation of section 201 of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi.

"Third. That the attempted effort on the part of the the Legislature to appropriate money for the support of the said school is in violation of section 208 of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi unless the provision of chapter 218 of the Laws of 1930, requiring the child or parent to pay tuition for the common school grades is within itself held unconstitutional."

The court below sustained the demurrer on the theory that the teachers' demonstration and practice schools provided for in sections 7241-7246 are a part of the "uniform system of free public schools" which section 201 of the Constitution requires the Legislature to establish, and therefore no tuition can be charged students in attendance thereon. That section is as follows: "It shall be the duty of the Legislature to encourage, by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement, by establishing a uniform system of free public schools, by taxation or otherwise, for all children between the ages of five and twenty-one years, and, as soon as practicable, to establish schools of higher grade."

In so holding, the court below was in error. These teachers' demonstration and practice schools are not within the control of the common school authorities, but the power to establish them and regulate "the affairs" thereof is conferred on the "administrative authorities of the major state institutions of learning." In order for a school to be within the system of free public schools required by section 201 of the Constitution, the establishment and control thereof must be vested in the public officials charged with the duty of establishing and supervising that system of schools. Otken v. Lamkin, 56 Miss. 758, and the State Teachers' College, formerly known as the State Normal College, is no part of the state's uniform system of free public schools. Turner v. Hattiesburg, 98 Miss. 337, 53 So. 681.

It is clear from the declaration that the appellant's teachers' demonstration and practice school instructs its pupils, and, the statute permits it so to do, in those elementary branches of learning embraced within the common school curriculum.

A further question therefore arises under section 201. of the Constitution, and that is, the power, vel non, of the Legislature to establish and support schools outside the common school system which teach those branches of learning within the common school curriculum. The case of Chrisman v. Brookhaven, 70 Miss. 477, 12 So. 458, 459, seems to hold that the Legislature has the power so to do. The school which the court there had under consideration was a municipal school outside of the public school system, and the court there, among other things, said: "It [referring to the Constitution] enjoins upon the Legislature to establish and maintain a uniform system of free public schools, but does not prohibit the establishment of other schools outside of its system, and the Legislature may provide for schools at pleasure not invading the constitutional scheme." The question of what branches of learning such schools could be permitted to teach was not discussed by the court; but it is clear from the report of the case that the school there under consideration was very much of the same character as those embraced in the common school system, with a curriculum similar to theirs.

But, leaving that case out of view, the same result must be reached here. The authority given the major state institutions of learning is not simply to teach those branches of learning within the common school curriculum, but so to do within a limited scope, and for the purpose of enabling those institutions to qualify their students to become school teachers, by demonstrating to them, in a miniature school, in the teaching of which they themselves may participate, the modern and approved methods of school teaching, and thereby insure the equipment of the common school system with competent teachers. These demonstration and practice schools, therefore, are in aid of the common school system, and the number of students attending them will necessarily be so small as to be negligible when compared with the number in attendance on the schools composing that system.

It has been suggested that the Legislature's power to establish colleges and universities is conferred and measured by the provision of section 1, art. 8, Constitution 1869, now section 201 of the present Constitution, that the Legislature shall "as soon as practicable . . . establish...