AMENDMENT 111 RATIFIED

Amendment of Sections 137, 139, 256, 258, 259, 260, 269, 270.

Amendment of Sections 137, 139, 256, 258, 259, 260, 269, 270.

Sec. 137. Duties generally and restrictions on receipt of fees, etc., by attorney general, state auditor, secretary of state, state treasurer, superintendent of education and commissioner of agriculture and industries; annual reports by state treasurer and state auditor; attorney general may be required to defend suits against state, political subdivisions, officers, etc.

The attorney general, state auditor, secretary of state, state treasurer, superintendent of education, and commissioner of agriculture and industries shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by law. The state treasurer and state auditor shall, every year, at a time fixed by the legislature, make a full and complete report to the governor, showing the receipts and disbursements of every character, all claims audited and paid out, by items, and all taxes and revenues collected and paid into the treasury, and the sources thereof. They shall make reports oftener upon any matters pertaining to their offices, if required by the governor or the legislature. The attorney general, state auditor, secretary of state, state treasurer, and commissioner of agriculture and industries shall not receive to their use any fees, costs, perquisites of office or other compensation than the salaries prescribed by law, and all fees that may be payable for any services performed by such officers shall be at once paid into the state treasury. The legislature may require the attorney general to defend any or all suits brought against the state, or any subdivision thereof, or against any state school board or state board of education, or against any county or city school board or board of education, or against like boards or commissions by whatever name designated, or against any members, officers or employees of any such boards, or against any school official or employee throughout Alabama.

Sec. 139. Vesting of judicial power; minimum standards for establishment of courts of general jurisdiction in counties; authority of legislature to constitute members of state, county and city school boards as judicial officers.

The judicial power of the state shall be vested in the senate sitting as a court of impeachment, a supreme court, circuit courts, chancery courts, courts of probate, such courts of law and equity inferior to the supreme court, and to consist of not more than five members, as the legislature from time to time may establish, and such persons as may be by law invested with powers of a judicial nature; but no court of general jurisdiction, at law or in equity, or both, shall hereafter be established in and for any one county having a population of less than twenty thousand, according to the next preceding federal census, and property assessed for taxation at a less valuation that three million five hundred thousand dollars. The legislature shall also have authority to constitute as judicial officers any or all of the members of state school boards, state boards of education, county school boards, city school boards, and like boards or commissions by whatever name designated, and all superintendents of schools and school officials and employees throughout Alabama, and to provide that all action taken by them, or any of them, requiring the exercise of discretion or judgment in connection with school matters be judicial action.

Sec. 256. Educational policy of the state; authority of legislature to provide for or authorize establishment and operation of schools by persons, municipalities, etc.; grant, donation, sale or lease of funds and property for educational purposes; election of certain schools for attendance by parents of minors.

It is the policy of the state of Alabama to foster and promote the education of its citizens in a manner and extent consistent with its available resources, and the willingness and ability of the individual student, but nothing in this Constitution shall be construed as creating or recognizing any right to education or training at public expense, nor as limiting the authority and duty of the legislature, in furthering or providing for education, to require or impose conditions or procedures deemed necessary to the preservation of peace and order.

The legislature may by law provide for or authorize the establishment and operation of schools by such persons, agencies or municipalities, at such places, and upon such conditions as it may prescribe, and for the grant or loan of public funds and the lease, sale or donation of real or personal property to or for the benefit of citizens of the state for educational purposes under such circumstances and upon such conditions as it shall prescribe. Real property owned by the state or any municipality shall not be donated for educational purposes except to nonprofit charitable or eleemosynary corporations or associations organized under the laws of the state.

To avoid confusion and disorder and to promote effective and economical planning for education, the legislature may authorize the parents or guardians of minors, who desire that such minors shall attend schools provided for their own race, to make election to that end, such election to be effective for such period and to such extent as the legislature may provide.

Sec. 258. Property donated or appropriated for educational purposes and estates of persons dying without will or heirs to be applied to furtherance of education.

All lands or other property given by individuals, or appropriated by the state for educational purposes, and all estates of deceased persons who die without leaving a will or heir, shall be used or applied to the furtherance of education.

Sec. 259. Use of poll taxes for support and furtherance of education.

All poll taxes collected in this state shall be applied to the support and furtherance of education in the respective counties where collected.

Sec. 260. Certain income to be applied to support and furtherance of education; special annual tax for education; maximum annual levy on taxable property; priority for payment of bonded indebtedness of state; proceeds of certain taxes to be used for support and furtherance of education.

The income arising from the sixteenth section trust fund, the surplus revenue fund, until it is called for by the United States government, and the funds enumerated in sections 257 and 258 of this Constitution, together with a special annual tax of thirty cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property in this state, which the legislature shall levy, shall be applied to the support and furtherance of education, and it shall be the duty of the legislature to increase the educational fund from time to time as the necessity therefor and the condition of the treasury and the resources of the state may justify; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to authorize the legislature to levy in any one year a greater rate of state taxation for all purposes, including schools, than sixty-five cents on each one hundred dollars' worth of taxable property; and provided further, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the legislature from first providing for the payment of the bonded indebtedness of the state and interest thereon out of all the revenue of the state.

Except as they may be specifically set aside in trust funds or otherwise applied to the payment of indebtedness, all proceeds of income or other taxes levied by the state, and of all special ad valorem or other taxes levied by counties and other municipalities, or school districts, pursuant to the Constitution as heretofore amended, for public school purposes, shall be applied to the support and furtherance of education pursuant to section 256 of the Constitution, as amended.

Sec. 269. Special county educational taxes.

The several counties in this state shall have power to levy and collect a special tax not exceeding ten cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property in such counties, for the support and furtherance of education in such manner as may be authorized by the legislature; provided, that the rate of such tax, the time it is to continue, and the purpose thereof, shall have been first submitted to a vote of the qualified electors of the county, and voted for by three-fifths of those voting at such election; but the rate of such special tax shall not increase the rate of taxation, state and county combined, in any one year, to more than one dollar and twenty-five cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property; excluding, however, all special county taxes for public buildings, roads, bridges, and the payment of debts existing at the ratification of the Constitution of eighteen hundred and seventy-five.

Sec. 270. Applicability of article to Mobile county.

The provisions of this article and of any act of the legislature passed in pursuance thereof for educational purposes, shall apply to Mobile county only so far as to authorize and require the authorities designated by law to draw the portions of the funds to which said county shall be entitled for school purposes and to make reports to the superintendent of education as may be prescribed by law; and all special incomes and powers of taxation as now authorized by law for the benefit of public schools in said county shall remain undisturbed until otherwise provided by the legislature.