Denison, 080132 PAAGO, AGO 57

• Case Date: August 01, 1932
• Court: Pennsylvania

Honorable W. M. Denison AGO 57 Opinion No. 57 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinion of the Attorney General August 1, 1932          Public Instruction. Constitutional Law. Art. X, Sec. 1. School Code. Sec. 401. Power of legislature to authorize public kindergartens for children under the age of six years. Act of May 29, 1931, P. L. 243.          Section 401 of the School Code as last amended by the Act of 1921, P. L. 243, does not violate Art. X, Sec. 1 of the State constitution, in authorizing the establishment of public kindergartens for children under the age of six years.          Honorable W. M. Denison,          Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction,          Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.          Sir: You have asked us whether the portion of Section 401 of the School Code of May 18, 1911, P. L. 309, as last amended by the Act of May 29, 1931, P. L. 243, which authorizes school districts to establish kindergartens for children between the ages of four and six years violates Section 1 of Article X of the State Constitution in affording school facilities for children less than six years old.          That Section of the Constitution is as follows:

"The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public schools, wherein all the children of this Commonwealth above the age of six years may be educated, and shall appropriate at least one million dollars each year for that purpose."

         In our opinion there is no conflict between these statutory and constitutional provisions.          Section 1 of Article X was included in the Constitution for the purpose of prescribing a minimum amount of aid to be given by the State to the cause of education. Previously, State appropriations had been small and irregular, and the principal burden had fallen on the local school districts: In re School District of Beallsville, 21 Pa.- C. C. 642, 653 (1897). We find in the section no...