Section 135. Appropriations for school purposes, school age
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Standards of quality; State and local support of public schools
Standards of quality for the several school divisions shall be determined and prescribed from time to time by the Board of Education, subject to revision only by the General Assembly. The General Assembly shall determine the manner in which funds are to be provided for the cost of maintaining an educational program meeting the prescribed standards of quality, and shall provide for the apportionment of the cost of such program between the Commonwealth and the local units of government comprising such school divisions. Each unit of local government shall provide its portion of such cost by local taxes or from other available funds.
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Appropriations for school purposes, school age
The General Assembly shall apply the annual interest on the literary fund; that portion of the capitation tax provided for in the Constitution to be paid into the State treasury, and not returnable to the counties and cities; and an amount equal to the total that would be received from an annual tax on property of not less than one nor more than five mills on the dollar to the schools of the primary and grammar grades, for the equal benefit of all the people of the State, to be apportioned on a basis of school population; the number of children between the ages of seven and twenty years in each school district to be the basis of such apportionment. And the General Assembly shall make such other appropriations for school purposes as it may deem best, to be apportioned on a basis to be provided by law.
The General Assembly shall apply the annual interest on the literary fund; that portion of the capitation tax provided for in the Constitution to be paid into the State treasury, and not returnable to the counties and cities; and an annual tax on property of not less than one nor more than five mills on the dollar to the schools of the primary and grammar grades, for the equal benefit of all of the people of the State, to be apportioned on a basis of school population; the number of children between the ages of seven and twenty years in each school district to be the basis of such apportionment: but if at any time the several kinds or classes of property shall be segregated for the purposes of taxation, so as to specify and determine upon what subjects state taxes and upon what subjects local taxes may be levied, then the General Assembly may otherwise provide for a fixed appropriation of state revenue to the support of the schools not less than that provided in this section.
The General Assembly shall apply the annual interest on the literary fund, the capitation tax provided for by this Constitution for public free school purposes, and an annual tax upon the property of the state of not less than one mill nor more than five mills on the dollar, for the equal benefit of all the people of the State, the number of children between the ages of five and twenty-one years, in each public free school district, being the basis of such division. Provision shall be made to supply children attending the public free schools with necessary text-books, in cases where the parent or guardian is unable, by reason of poverty, to furnish them. Each county and public free school district may raise additional sums by a tax on property for the support of public free schools. All unexpended sums of any one year in any public free school district shall go into the general school fund for re-division the next year: Provided, that any tax authorized by this section to be raised by counties or school districts shall not exceed five mills on a dollar in any one year, and shall not be subject to re-division as hereinbefore provided in this section.