shall ever make any appropriation, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian society, or for any sectarian purpose, or to help support, or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatsoever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property, ever be made by the State, or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.
Section 8.No religious test or qualification shall ever be required of any person as a condition of admission into any public educational institution of the State, either as teacher or student; and no teacher or student of any such institution shall ever be required to attend, or participate in any religious service whatever. No sectarian tenets or doctrines shall ever be taught in the public schools, nor shall any distinction or classification of pupils be made on account of race or color.
Section 9.The Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, shall constitute the State Board of Land Commissioners, who shall have the direction, control and disposition of the public lands of the State, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.
Section 10.It shall be the duty of the State Board of Land Commissioners to provide for the location, protection, sale or other disposition of all the lands heretofore, or which may hereafter be granted to the State by the general government, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law; and in such manner as will secure the maximum possible amount therefor. No law shall ever be passed by the General Assembly granting any privileges to persons who may have settled upon any such public lands subsequent to the survey thereof by the General Government, by which the amount to be derived by the sale, or other disposition of such lands, shall be diminished, directly or indirectly.
The General Assembly shall, at the earliest practicable period, provide by 'law that the several grants of land made by Congress to the State shall be judiciously located and carefully preserved and held in trust subject to disposal, for the use and benefit of the respective objects for. which said grants of land were made, and the General Assembly shall provide for the sale of said lands from time to time; and for the faithful application of the proceeds thereof in accordance with the terms of said grants.
Section 11.The General Assembly may require, by law, that every child of sufficient mental and physical ability, shall attend the public school during the period between the ages of six and eighteen years, for a time equivalent to three years, unless educated by other means.
Section 12.There shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State, at the first general election under this Constitution,
