More about the school problem...

This was an article in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune in December 1913.  It documents a ruling by the state  high school board re: "graded schools in St Joseph, Melrose and Richmond in Stearns county, and in Pierz, in Morrison county".  I'd editorialize a bit, but I have to go to work....☺

Religious Teaching Barred from Schools
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State High School Board Refuses Aid to those Giving Sectarian Instructions.
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No Member of a Religious Order to be Permitted to Teach.
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Action Follows Investigation into Merger of Public and Parochial Schools.
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Religious instructions in any public school during the usual session hours, or the hours immediately before or after, instruction from "any book of a sectarian character" during such time, the presence in a school building of any emblem having a purely religious significance and the wearing of the garb of any particular religious organization--all are forbidden by a recent resolution of the state high school board which was made public yesterday.
The board's action results from an investigation made a year ago by its inspectors of high and graded schools respecting the employment of teachers in any high school or graded school where such employment is restricted to a particular order or sect.
George B. Aiton, high school inspector, reported that no state high school was conducted in such a way as to be open to charges of being a parochial school. S. A. Challman, then inspector of graded schools, reported on the conduct of the graded schools in St Joseph, Melrose, and Richmond in Stearns county, and in Pierz, in Morrison county.
Order Recieves Salaries.
Mr. Challman reported that "in each of these schools teachers are employed who are members of the Benedictine order; that some part of the school day has been devoted to religious instruction, given either by the teachers or by some other persons not connected with the public schools; that in each of the schools there were kept religious emblems and symbols; that the teachers did not recieve individual salaries but at the end of the month a check or warrant was issued for the full amount of their contract services and made payable to the Sister Superior."
The board thereupon asked the attorney general for an opinion as to whether schools of the character names were entitled legally to recieve the state aid accorded high and graded schools.  The attorney general replied that the law, judicial decisions and his own opinion, together with the facts ascertained regarding the schools mentioned, raised serious doubts as to the authority of the high school board to continue granting state aid to these or similar schools.
In the minds of the members of the high school board, the final determination of the merits of these and like cases should be left to the state supreme court, so the regulations adopted by the board to govern in the situation were made effective only beginning August 1, 1914.  It is stated at the office of C. G. Schultz, state superintendant of education, that state aid for the schools named in Mr. Challman's report has not been withheld for 1912-1913 and will not be for the current year ending July 31, 1914.
New Rules for Schools.
The regulations adopted, applying to all schools under the supervision of the high school board for the earniing of state aid, are as follows:
1.  The school board must have exclusive control over buildings used permanently for public school.
2.  In buildings used during emergencies the school board must have exclusive control over rooms used for schools purposes during hours of school.
3.  The use of any school room for religious instruction during the usual hours a public school is in session or the hours immediately preceeding or following, either by public school teachers or by any other person, is prohibited.
4.  No public school teacher, while employed as such, shall give instructions from any book of a sectarian character, or in any subject not ordinarily embraced in a public school curriculum, during the usual school hours of any day when the public school is in session or during the hours immediately preceeding or following the same.
5.  The public school, its pupils, teachers, property or organization shall not be used in the interests of any church or religious order.
6.  No emblem, symbol or device which has a purely religious significance shall be permitted in any building used as a public school.
No Sister May Teach.
7.  The employment of persons who have taken some ecclesiastical vow or obligation which prevents them from personally recieving and using funds paid for their services as teachers, and causes them in fact to turn over such funds to some church or ecclesiastical superior is deemed to be a conversion of public funds in violation of the constitutional prohibition as expressed in section 16, article 1 of the constitution of Minnesota, and is prohibited.
8.  No teacher shall be permitted to be attired in the uniform or garb of any particular organization or order during the time such person is engaged in the work of teacher in the public schools of the state.
The state high school board consists of R.E.Denfeld, superintendant of schools, Duluth, president; C.G.Schultz, secretary; George E Vincent, president of the university; Eli Torrance, president of the norman school board, and George F. Howard, university school of agriculture.
Public and Parochial Schools Merged.
It is understood that the school situations in the towns that have occasioned the action of the board have arisen through the attempted solutions of the parochial-public school problem by the merging of the two kinds of school where they formerly existed separately, the teachers in the parochial school being continued in some or all of the departments of the merges institutions, but without an abandoning of their distinctive garb or religious instruction.