Article XI
Sec. 9: The legislature shall continue a system of primary schools, whereby every school district in the State shall provide for the education of its pupils without charge for tuition; and all instruction in such schools shall be conducted in the English language. If any school district shall neglect to maintain a school within its borders as prescribed by law for at least five months in each year, or to provide for the education of its pupils in another district or districts for an equal period, it shall be deprived for the ensuing year of its proportion of the primary school interest fund. If any school district shall, on the second Monday in July of any year, have on hand a sufficient amount of money in the primary school interest fund to pay its teachers for the next ensuing two years as determined from the pay roll of said district for the last school year, and in case of a primary district, all tuition for the next ensuing two years, based upon the then enrollment in the seventh and eighth grades in said school district, the children in said district shall not be counted in making the next apportionment of primary school money by the Superintendent of Public Instruction; nor shall such children be counted in making such apportionment until the amount of money in the primary school interest fund in said district shall be insufficient to pay teachers’ wages or tuition as herein set forth for the next ensuing two years.
