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THE STATE supreme court of 

 Illinois handed down on Sept. 24 

 a momentous decision affecting the 

 school reorganization movement 

 in Illinois. Much confusion 

 would have resulted from an adverse 

 decision. The court, however, declared 

 House Bill 575, referred to as the 

 Community Unit Act, constitutional 

 after many weeks of uncertamty on the 

 part of school leaders, school treasurers 

 and state officials. 



The decision automatically released 

 school funds in many of the new com- 

 munity unit districts that had been 

 held on the advice of states attorneys 

 pending the decision by the supreme 

 court. Also, it will allow such districts 

 to sell bonds where needed and will 

 encourage other areas on the verge of 

 voting under the community unit law. 

 The opinion of the court was expressed 

 on related points, namely: 



I. The legislature has all right to 

 legislate on public school matters. This 

 right is subject only to stated limita- 

 tions in Section 1 of Article VIII of the 

 constitution. The local citizen's right 

 to vote in his school district is granted 

 by legislative grace only to further the 

 policy of the legislature. The power 



Court Decision 

 Releases Rural 

 School Funds 



given to local people to organize a 

 school district by petition or election 

 is only a "privilege" granted by the 

 legislature as distinguished from a 

 "right." It also states that the constitu- 

 tion nowhere gives a particular group 

 of the population the right to the 

 continued enjoyment of a particular 

 school system, against the will of the 

 legislature. 



2. Teachers of districts wholly ab- 

 sorbed into community unit districts 

 retain their "tenure" rights. The court 

 holds that the new district stands in 

 the place of the old one and the con- 

 tractual rights are unimpaired. 



3. House Bill 340, which required 

 petitions for a change of boundaries to, 

 be submitted to the survey committee 

 in the county or counties affected before 



being acted upon, was declared not to 

 apply to community unit districts. The 

 court argues that the wording of House 

 Bill 340 referring to "change in bound- 

 aries" was the same wording used in 

 other laws in deferring to annexing or 

 detaching of territory. It said that al- 

 though the petition for the establish- 

 ment of a new community unit district 

 did involve a change of boundaries, the 

 legislature obviously did riot intend 

 that petitions for community unit dis- 

 tricts were to be submitted to survey 

 committees. This point is important 

 as it pertains to the validity of several 

 new community unit districts in the 

 vicinity of Springfield. 



4. The court again upheld the two- 

 vote idea — which gives rural and 

 urban groups the right to vote separate- 

 ly on the establishment of a new school 

 district. 



5. The court also by inference upheld 

 the method of scattering representation 

 on school boards as provided in the 

 Community Unit Act. The act specifies 

 that if a district has more than two 

 congressional townships then no one 

 can have more than three representa- 

 tives on .the school board. 



^ K 



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for the huge corn crop available for hog production 

 this fall. They are also thankful for the protection 

 Farm Bureau Serum affords their valuable pigs against 

 hog cholera. 



ILLINOIS FARM BUREAU SERUM ASSOCIATION 



NOVEMBER. 1948 



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