School Trusts - Permanent School Funds

The statehood or enabling act, which granted school trust lands, also established a permanent fund. As the land generates revenue, the proceeds are deposited into a permanent fund. Schools receive a distribution from the interest and dividends. The corpus is not spent. Each state has a name for the permanent fund and they vary from state to state. States also differ so far as which revenues are deposited into the permanent fund. In some states all proceeds are deposited in the fund and in others some "renewable resource revenue" is distributed to schools each year, in addition to the interest and dividends from the fund.

Research included on this page explains the similarities and differences of the permanent funds between states. Permanent fund balances and annual distributions for the states is included under Research and Comparisons on this website. They are also found on the state pages. CLASS works to update the comparison documents on a regular basis.