Article VIII--Part First, Maine Constitution

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Article VIII - Part First of the Maine Constitution is entitled Education and consists of two sections.

Section 1

Text of Section 1: Legislature Shall Require Towns to Support Public Schools; Duty of Legislature A general diffusion of the advantages of education being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people; to promote this important object, the Legislature are authorized, and it shall be their duty to require, the several towns to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public schools; and it shall further be their duty to encourage and suitably endow, from time to time, as the circumstances of the people may authorize, all academies, colleges and seminaries of learning within the State; provided, that no donation, grant or endowment shall at any time be made by the Legislature to any literary institution now established, or which may hereafter be established, unless, at the time of making such endowment, the Legislature of the State shall have the right to grant any further powers to alter, limit or restrain any of the powers vested in any such literary institution, as shall be judged necessary to promote the best interests thereof.

Section 2

Text of Section 2: Authority to Pledge the Credit of the State and to Issue Bonds for Loans to Maine students in Higher Education and Their Parents For the purpose of assisting the youth of Maine to achieve the required levels of learning and to develop their intellectual and mental capacities, the Legislature, by proper enactment, may authorize the credit of the State to be loaned to secure funds for loans to Maine students attending institutions of higher education, wherever situated, and to parents of these students. Funds shall be obtained by the issuance of state bonds, when authorized by the Governor, but the amount of bonds issued and outstanding shall not at one time exceed in the aggregate $4,000,000. Funds loaned shall be on such terms and conditions as the Legislature shall authorize.

Amendments

• Maine Higher Education Loans to Parents, Proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 2 (1982), which was approved on November 2, 1982.

See also

• List of amendments to the Maine Constitution
• State constitution
• Constitutional article
• Constitutional amendment
• Constitutional revision
• Constitutional convention
• Amendments
  • Initiated constitutional amendment
  • Legislatively-referred constitutional amendment
  • Publication requirements for proposed state constitutional amendments
  • Rules about constitutional conventions in state constitutions
  • State constitutional articles governing state legislatures

External links

Suggest a link

• Maine.gov, "Constitution of the State of Maine"
• Maine.gov, "Enacted Constitutional Amendments from 1911 - Present"
• Maine.gov, "Constitution of the State of Maine 1820"
• Maine: An Encyclopedia, "Constitution, Maine"

Additional reading

• Tinkle, Marshall J. (2013). The Maine State Constitution, New York, New York: Oxford University Press
• Palmer, Kenneth T. and Marcus LiBrizzi. (1989). "Development of the Maine Constitution: The Long Tradition, 1819-1988." Maine Historical Society Quarterly
• Hatch, Louis Clinton (1919). Maine: A History, New York, New York: The American Historical Society