Towns in Virginia in order to be incorporated must have at least 300 inhabitants and must receive approval of the local circuit judge. Towns still remain part of the county after their incorporation. At present, there are approximately two hundred incorporated towns whose functions are carried out and services furnished by the County and the Town governments. Every town has a Council and a Mayor and in the large towns, usually a Town Manager. Three other town officials are a Treasurer, a Clerk (called a Secretary or Recorder) and a Town Attorney.
Residents of Virginia, consequently, are governed daily by either Town, City or County levels of government in addition to State and National levels.
Education and Public Instruction
Article IX concerns education. The Constitution specifically states that "The General Assembly shall establish and maintain an efficient system of public free schools throughout the State." Therefore, as in all states in United States, the management of the schools is basically the responsibility of the state. There is a State Board of Education consisting of seven members appointed for four-year terms by the Governor with the approval of the General Assembly. The Governor with the approval of the General Assembly also appoints an experienced educator to the chief educational position known as the Superintendent of Public Instruction. His term of office parallels that of the Governor who appoints him. The duties and powers of the State Board of Education are constitutionally described as follows:
(1) to divide the State into school divisions or districts; to certify to the local school boards within each division a list of persons who have reasonable academic and business qualifications for division superintendent of schools (the local school board has the authority to select from this list the individual whom they wish to hold the position of superintendent of their division for a four-year term),
(2) to manage and invest the school fund, according to legal regulations,
(3) to make rules and regulations for the management and conduct of the schools, upon the authority of the General Assembly,
(4) to select textbooks and educational appliances for school use with the General Assembly itself prescribing the time when textbooks are to be changed by the State Board of Education.
According to the Constitution, each magisterial district is a separate school district, and the magisterial district furnishes the basis of representation on the county or city school board. In cities which have a population of at least one hundred and fifty thousand, school boards have the authority to decide for themselves, with the approval of the local legislative body, the number and the boundaries of their school districts. The General Assembly has the right to consolidate into one school division, if it deems it advisable, one or more counties or cities with one or more counties or cities. Each division school board is empowered to select the superintendent of schools for its own division or district. In case a local school board fails to make such an appointment within a prescribed time, the State Board of Education then appoints the superintendent in that district.
In 1810 a Literary Fund was created as a permanent fund to be used to defray educational expenses in Virginia. This money originally came from the proceeds of public lands donated by Congress for public free school purposes, from unclaimed property, from property which the state received through forfeiture, from fines collected for offenses against the state and from other funds appropriated by the General Assembly. The only money in the fund which must, by constitutional requirement, be apportioned on a basis of school population for the benefit of the primary and grammar school levels is the annual interest on the Literary Fund, one dollar of the State capitation tax (total State capitation tax, $1.50) and an amount equal to an annual tax on property of not less than one nor more than five mills on the dollar. The school population in this instance refers to the number of children in each school district between the ages of seven and twenty years.
Each school district has the authority to raise additional sums of money for educational purposes by levying a school tax on property, a maximum amount being established by the law. The Board of Supervisors in the county area and the Council in the town or city areas have the authority to levy and collect local school taxes.
The General Assembly has the right to establish agricultural, normal, manual training and technical schools as well as other schools deemed desirable for the public welfare. Virginia colleges under State control at present are the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, Longwood College at Farmville, Madison College at Harrisonburg, Mary Washington College (women's division of the University of Virginia) at Fredericksburg, Medical College of Virginia at Richmond, Radford College, (Women's division of Virginia Polytechnic Institute) at Radford, the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg and Virginia State College at Petersburg. The State also controls the Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William and Mary in Richmond, the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary in Norfolk and the Norfolk Division of Virginia State College in Norfolk. The Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind at Staunton and the Virginia State School for Colored Deaf and Blind Children at Newport News are State operated.
The General Assembly also establishes compulsory education. At the present time, school attendance is not compulsory on a state basis but many communities have passed local compulsory attendance laws. Whenever a parent or guardian is financially unable to furnish public school children with necessary textbooks, the local school system provides free textbooks to such individuals. The Virginia Constitution has required that there be segregation of white and colored children in the schools of Virginia. However, as a result of a U. S. Supreme Court ruling in 1954, the segregation of colored and white children became illegal and unconstitutional. Consequently, local and state officials throughout Virginia have been compelled to reconsider the state constitutional provision concerning segregation in the public schools and to integrate the school population in some areas.