Colorado

On March 3, 1875, the United States Congress passed the Colorado Enabling Act, paving the way for Colorado to achieve statehood. This act granted sections sixteen and thirty-six in each township for the use and support of common schools. The original amount of land granted to Colorado by Congress was approximately 4.4 million acres. It also included a proviso for the establishment and building of the Permanent School Fund. Because of prior sales policies, there are now 2.6 million surface acres and 3.8 million mineral acres left in the school land trust.

The Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners is responsible for the proper management of the school trust lands, as per Colorado's constitution. Their job is to insure that surface and mineral revenue, generated through crop production leases, cattle grazing, oil and gas production and other means, continues to be generated for schools. The renewable resource revenues are distributed to schools and the revenue from land sales and mineral extraction are deposited into the permanent school fund. The Colorado State Treasurer oversees the investment of the fund and insures that the annual interest is distributed to the schools. The combined distribution from renewable resources and interest was $34,000,000 in FY 2006.

In recent years, advocates for school trust lands have succeeded in passing legislation to increase the cap on money going into the fund so that more is retained to generate an increasing perpetual revenue stream. Additional legislative efforts are under consideration to assist in their goal of increasing the permanent fund to $1 billion in ten years.

The Colorado PTA and the Colorado Education Association formed a coalition soon after the first CLASS Conference to moniter activities relating to the school trusts. The coalition, entitled CLASS-Colorado, now includes members of the Land Board as well as the State Treasurer, the Colorado State Board of Education, and other interested parties. The members of the coalition have provided training for their respective boards, as well as the membership at large about the school lands and funds. The Colorado PTA includes workshops and keynote speakers at all legislative trainings and Legislative Conferences.

Research Links

Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners

http://www.trustlands.state.co.us

Available Documents

Title	Link
Colorado Enabling Act	download
Original School Acreage	download
Surface and Mineral Acreage	download
Colorado State Constitution	download
Colorado Funding Flow chart	download
FY 2008 Surface Revenue	download
FY 2008 Permanent Fund Data	download
FY 2008 Mineral Revenue	download
Trust Lands and Education Funding CLASS/Sonoran Research	download
FY 2008 Distribution to Public Schools	download

Return to state list