142 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND.

ceeding his election, and a vacancy in said office shall he filled by the County
Commissioners of said County for the residue of the term.

ARTICLE VIII.

EDUCATION.

Section 1. The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption
of this Constitution, shall, by law, establish throughout the State a thorough
and efficient system of free Public Schools; and shall provide by taxation
or otherwise, for their maintenance.

This section means that the schools must be open to all without expense; to
single out a certain portion of the people by the arbitrary standard of color and
deny them the rights which are possessed by others, denies them the equal pro-
tection of the laws, and, as applied to public schools, violates this section. Colored
pupils, however, may lawfully be excluded from an institution which receives munic-
ipal aid but is not a part of the public school system, such as the Maryland Insti-
tute in Baltimore. Mandamus denied. Clark v. Md. Institute, 87 Md. 661.

This section referred to in holding that a municipal corporation is not liable for
injuries caused by the faulty construction, or want of repair, of a public school
. building. Gold v. Baltimore, 137 Md. 340.

In the light of this section it cannot be said that the erection of buildings for
public school purposes is a matter in which the state has no concern, nor that the
creation of a debt for such purposes is not within the ordinary functions of muni-
cipal government. The act of 1894, ch. 620, providing for the erection of a public
school building in Annapolis and authorizing the school commissioners to borrow
money and the city to issue bonds therefor, held valid. Revell v. Annapolis, 81
Md. 9.

In obedience to the requirement of this section, the general assembly of 1868
enacted an elaborate statute providing a system of public schools throughout the
state—and among other things gave Baltimore city full power to establish a sys-
tem of free public schools—see art. 77, sec. 188, et seq., of the An. Code and notes
thereto. See also, notes to art. 11, sec. 8, of the Md. Constitution. Hooper v. New,
85 Md. 580.

The public school system as it now exists was framed by the legislature pur-1
suant to the requirements of this article—see notes to art. 77, secs. 6, 39, et seq.
See also, notes to art. 2, sec. 15, of the Md. Constitution. School Commissioners v.
Goldsborough, 90 Md. 201.

For a case involving this article as it stood in the Constitution of 1864 and the
act of 1865, ch. 160, passed in pursuance thereof, see School Commissioners v.
State Board of Education, 26 Md. 513.

See art. 77, An. Code.

Sec. 2. The System of Public Schools, as now constituted, shall remain
in force until the end of the first session of the General Assembly, and
shall then expire, except so far as adopted or continued by the General
Assembly.

The system of public schools in force when the Constitution of 1867 went into
effect contained no provision for the appointment of school commissioners for
Baltimore city apart from the ordinance of 1866, which continued in force—see
notes to art. 11, sec. 7. This section construed in connection with art. 77, sec. 188,
et seq., of the An. Code—see notes thereto. Hooper v. New, 85 Md. 580.

Sec. 3. The School Fund of the State shall be kept inviolate, and
appropriated only to the purposes of education.

This section referred to in deciding that a board of county school commissioners
is not liable in an action of tort for negligence, unless such liability is imposed by
statute. Weddle v. School Commissioners, 94 Md. 344; Loeffler v. Sheppard-Pratt
Hosp., 130 Md. 272.