During this period there existed the same division of the school fund into a permanent and an available fund which had been made in 1870. The principal of the bonds and other funds and the principal of the proceeds from the sale of school lands constituted the permanent fund; the interest on the investment of the permanent fund and a share of the taxes made up the available fund, and was the amount which was applicable annually to the support of the public free schools.1 These funds could not be appropriated to any other purpose. The Constitution of 1869 set apart to the school fund the lands and other funds theretofore given to it, the proceeds of all public land sales, one-fourth of the annual revenue from general taxation, and the full revenue from an annual poll tax of $1.2 The Constitution of 1876 gave to it the "funds, lands, and other property heretofore set apart and appropriated for the support of public schools; all the alternate sections of land reserved by the state out of grants heretofore made or that may hereafter be made to railroads or other corporations of any nature whatsoever one-half of the public domain of the state." This was constituted the permanent fund and the income from it and "not more than one-fourth of the general revenue of the state, and a poll tax of $1" was defined to be the available fund.3

The permanent fund had in bonds and cash on August 31, 1874, $2,563,313; on August 31, 1880, $3,542,126. Included in these amounts were $402,535 of state bonds of doubtful validity and the railroad bonds without any deduction of the sinking fund. The increase between 1874 and 1880 was due principally to the sales of school lands and to the recovery in 1876 of some of the United States bonds which had been taken from the fund during the war and put at the disposal of the Military Board. The bonds were sold for $339,240, which amount less commissions of $39,216 on contracts for recovery, netted $300,023. Neither the permanent fund nor the available fund benefited to any large extent from the public lands. The total receipts to the permanent fund from land sales were during the six years ending August 31, 1880, only $251,089, while the available fund received as interest on land notes only $61,695. Nothing was derived from the lease of school lands, but the millions of acres belonging to the fund afforded free pasture to vast herds of cattle. In 1879 a rental of $25 per section was fixed for any one enclosing any of the public lands and using them to the exclusion of the public; but this barely touched the policy of "free grass."

1 Constitution of 1876, art. 7, sec. 5.

2 Art. 9. sec. 6.

3 Art. 7, secs. 2 and 3.

Until 1880 the available fund received the maximum share of one-fourth of the general revenue. The continuous deficits in the general revenue fund resulted in 1879 in an agitation which charged the school fund as the cause of the deficit, and a decided effort was made in the regular session of the Sixteenth Legislature to reduce the share during 1880 and 1881 to either one-sixth or one-eighth of the revenues.1 Neither branch of the legislature was willing to meet the public with such a reduction, however, and it remained for the governor to veto the item appropriating one-fourth. At the special session though, in 1879, one-sixth of the ad valorem and occupation tax receipts was appropriated.2 It was contemplated, of course, that this reduction should be only temporary.3

The per capita apportionments from the available fund were as follows:

1 Message of Governor Roberts, January 29, 1878.

2 Laws of 1879, p. 44.

3 The deficiency argument was joined with the appeal to popular prejudice that the school system was a child of the Reconstruction era. See Galveston News, March 18, 20, 21, and 30; April 11, 19, and 24; and May 7, 8, and 15, 1879.

There were warrants outstanding against the available fund on August 31, 1874, of $104,577; on August 31, 1875, of $384,-838, and there was also a large unascertained amount of unaudited claims of school teachers for services rendered prior to July 1, 1873. In 1874 $400,000 of the available fund not otherwise appropriated was appropriated to the payment of the teachers' claims, and it was provided that teachers' warrants registered by the comptroller should draw 8 per cent interest or should be fundable into school bonds.1 No school bonds were authorized, and these claims dragged on. The Constitution of 1876 provided that the legislature should either pay or fund them, and by the bond act of July 6, 1876, their payment out of the proceeds of the bond sales was authorized.2 The amount paid on their account was through 1883, $404,536, and an additional appropriation of $15,000 was made in 1883. Claims continued to appear long after this date.

Little support from the general treasury was given to higher education during this period. The Constitution of 1876 called for the establishment as soon as practicable of a state university and of a branch university for the instruction of negroes, but provided that no tax should be levied and no money appropriated out of the general revenue, either for the university for negroes or for buildings for the University of Texas.3 It called for an immediate appropriation of $40,000 for the completion of the buildings and the furnishings of the Agricultural and Mechanical College.4 Provision was made in 1876 for the establishment of a negro agricultural and mechanical college, but in 1879 this project was replaced by one for a negro normal school. The Sam Houston Normal Institute for whites was provided for in 1879. The support of the negro normal, $6,000 a year, devolved upon the university fund; the support of the white normal, $14,000 a year, upon the available school fund. Nothing was done towards the establishment of a state university. The Constitution of 1876 repealed the valuable grant made to the University of one-tenth of the alternate sections of lands donated to railroads by the act of 1858, but gave one million of the unappropriated lands as a substitute land endowment. The new lands given were located in the western part of the state and were not as valuable as the lands taken away.1 Suit was also brought during this period which resulted in the loss to the university fund of valuable land in McLennan County.

1 Laws of 1874, p. 149. •

2 Constitution of 1876, art. 16, sec. 36. Laws of 1876, p. 40. Comptroller's Report, 1875. Message of Governor Coke, April 19, 1876. 3Art. 7, secs. 10 and 14. 4Art. 7, sec. 13.

Though the state itself was doing little for education, the counties and minor civil divisions were doing nothing. There was no taxation by school districts, and only $1,994 of local school taxes were collected in 1879. At the same time 24.1 per cent of the population ten years of age and over was unable to read, and 29.7 per cent was unable to write. The negro element was responsible for these large percentages, as 75.4 per cent of the negroes ten years of age and over was unable to write, while the percentage for the whites was 15.3.2

1 Message of Governor Roberts, April 6, 1882.

2 Tenth Census of the United States. Vol. Population, p. 919.