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  1. Overview: Wyoming State Constitutional Convention 1889
  2. Full Record: Wyoming State Constitutional Convention 1889
  3. Committee:Committee of the Whole
  4. Session: 1889-09-26 00:00:00
  5. Event type: CREATE

Wyoming State Constitutional Convention 1889

The Wyoming Constitution Convention began September 2, 1889 without the authorization from an enabling act. The articles were individually voted on, creating the final Constitution of Wyoming on September 30, 1889. It was later ratified on November 5, 1889.

Committee of the Whole

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Document introduced in:

Session 6907: 1889-09-26 00:00:00

The committee considered the articles on Education; Public Lands and Donations; Coal Mines; Elections; Qualifications to Office; Schedule; and Boards of Arbitration.

Document View:

Substitute for Files No. 59, 28, and 8 [Committee of the Whole]

(Showing state at moment e682580)
There are 2 proposed amendments related to this document on which decisions have not been taken.

Section 1. The legislature shall provide for and maintain a complete and uniform system of public instruction, embracing free elementary schools of every needed kind and grade, a university with such technical and professional departments as the public good may demand, and the means of the state allow, and such other schools as may be necessary.

Sec. 2. The following are declared to perpetual funds for school purposes, of which the annual income only can be appropriated, to wit: Such per centum as has been or may hereafter be granted by congress on the sale of lands in this state; all moneys arising from the sale or lease of sections number sixteen and thirty-six in each township in the state, and the lands selected, or that may be selected in lieu thereof: the proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted to this state, where by the terms and conditions of the grant the same are not to be otherwise appropriated; the net proceeds of lands and other property and effects that may come to the state by escheat or forfeiture or from unclaimed dividends or distributive shares of the estates of deceased persons; all moneys, stocks, bonds, lands and other property now belonging to the common school fund.

Sec. 4. All moneys, stocks, bonds, lands and other property belonging to a county school fund, except such moneys and property as may be provided by law for current use in aid of public schools, shall belong to and be securely invested and sacredly preserved in the several counties as a county public school fund, the income of which shall be appropriated exclusively to the use and support of free public schools in the several counties of the state.

Sec. 5. [No text available.]

Sec. 6. All fines and penalties under general laws of the state shall belong to the public school fund of the respective counties, and be paid over to the custodians of such funds for the current support of the public schools therein.

Sec. 7. All funds belonging to the state for public school purposes, the interest and income of which only are to be used shall be deemed trust funds in the care of the state, which shall keep them for the exclusive benefit of the public schools and shall make good any losses that may in any manner occur, so that the same shall remain forever inviolate and undiminished. None of such funds shall ever be invested or loaned except on the bonds issued by school districts, or registered county bonds of the state or state securities of this or of the United States.

Sec. 8. The income arising from the funds mentioned in the preceding section together with all the rents of the unsold school lands and such other means as the legislature may provide, shall be exclusively applied to the support of free schools in every county in the state.

Sec. 9. Provision shall be made by general law for the equitable distribution of such income among the several counties according to the number of children of school age in each; which several counties shall in like manner distribute the proportion of said fund by them received respectfully to the several school districts embraced therein. But no appropriation shall be made from said fund to any district for the year in which a school has not been maintained for at least three months; nor shall any portion of any public school fund ever be used to support or assist any private school, or any school, academy, seminary, college or other institution of learning controlled by any church or sectarian organization or religious denomination whatsoever.

Sec. 10. The legislature shall make such further provision by taxation, or otherwise, as with the income arising from the general school fund will create and maintain a thorough and efficient system of public schools adequate to the proper instruction of all the youth of the state between the ages of six and twenty-one years, free of charge; and in view of such provision so made, the legislature shall require the every child of sufficient physical and mental ability shall attend a public school during the period between six and eighteen years for a time equivalent to three years, unless educated by other means.

Sec. 11. In none of the public school so established and maintained shall distinction or discriminations be made on account of sex, race, or color.

Sec. 12. Neither the legislature nor the superintendent of public instruction shall have power to prescribe text books to be used in the public schools.

Sec. 13. No sectarian instruction, qualifications, or test, shall be imparted, exacted, applied, or in any manner tolerated in the schools of any grade or character controlled by the state, not shall attendance be required at any religious service therein; nor shall any sectarian tenets or doctrines be taught or favored in any public school or institution that may be established under this constitution.

Sec. 14. The governor, secretary of state, state treasurer and superintendent of public instruction shall constitute the board of land commissions, which, under direction of the legislature, as limited by this constitution, shall have the direction, control, leasing and disposal of the lands of the state granted, or which may be hereafter granted for the support and benefit of public schools, subject to the further limitations that the sale of all lands shall be at public auction, after such delta (not less than the time fixed by congress), in portions at proper intervals of time, and at such minimum prices (not less than the minimum fixed by congress), as to realize the largest possible proceeds.

Sec. 15. The general supervision of the public schools shall be entrusted to the state superintendent of public instruction, whose powers and duties shall be prescribed by law.

Sec. 16. The establishment of the University of Wyoming is hereby confirmed, and said institution, with its several departments, is hereby declared the University of the State of Wyoming. All lands which may have been heretofore granted or which may be hereafter granted by congress unto the university as such, or in aid of the instruction to be given in any of its departments, with all other grants, donations and devises for said university, or for any of its departments, shall vest in said university, and be exclusively used for the purposes for which they were granted, donated or devised.

The said lands may be leased on terms approved by the land commissioners, but may not be sold on terms not approved by congress.

Sec. 17. The university shall be equally open to students of both sexes, irrespective of race or color; and, in order that the instruction furnished may be as nearly free as possible, any amount in addition to the income from its grants of lands and other sources above mentioned, necessary to its support and maintenance in a condition of full efficiency, shall be raised by taxation or otherwise, under provisions of the legislature.

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Sec. 22.

Sec. 23.

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