School Trust Lands
New Mexico
New Mexico arrived at statehood late and arrived prepared. By 1910, Congress had watched two generations of school-land grants leak away through quiet sales, sweetheart leases, and outright fraud in older states — and it had taken the lesson. The Arizona-New Mexico Enabling Act of 1910 is the strictest piece of school-trust drafting in the federal record. It does not imply a trust or gesture toward one. It writes the trust into the enabling act in plain words, with restoration mechanisms, federal Attorney General enforcement standing, and an express breach-of-trust framework attached. Margaret Bird's reading is direct: "the most strongly worded of any of the enabling acts." The earlier states had not understood, in 1802 or 1850, how many ways school lands could be stolen. By 1910, Congress understood, and it wrote the protections down.
New Mexico inherited that strict floor and largely lived up to it. The state's own annual reports, in their early decades, called the school sections what Congress had called them — a trust — and described them in their reports as "the birthright of schools." That language is not decorative. It is the institutional posture that lets a trust survive the next legislature. New Mexico holds 6.8 million surface acres of its original eight-million-acre grant today; that retention rate is not accidental.
In 1894, due to the arid nature of New Mexico, Congress granted four section per township for the support of public schools. Schools received 8,711,324 acres and now hold 6.8 million surface acres and 9.8 million mineral acres. These school trust lands are managed by the New Mexico State Land Office led by Stephanie Garcia Richard who is the statewide elected Commissioner of Public Lands. She is the first woman commissioner, first Latina, and first educator to be elected to that office. The State Land Office is located at 310 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501. They may be reached by phone at (505) 827-5760. Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard is the first woman, the first Latina, and the first educator to serve in the position as New Mexico’s Commissioner of Public Lands. The Commissioner is focused on raising as much money as possible while always keeping an eye toward stewardship and preserving the land for generations to come. She believes the land office can diversify the revenue that comes into the office by tripling the number of renewable energy projects, promoting outdoor recreation, and encouraging new and innovative commercial development on the school trust land. With the largest continuous oil and gas resources potential ever assessed in the world sitting in southeastern New Mexico, and land that is prime for wind and solar development, Commissioner Garcia Richard is committed to working to make more money for New Mexico while protecting the health of the land.
During Fiscal Year 2022, the school trust lands generated $2.2 billion in gross revenue. In FY 2022, the lands earned the highest revenue in 128 years since statehood. The revenue from the school trust provided approximately one-fourth of all New Mexico school budgets—the highest percentage of a state’s education budget in the nation.
The largest revenue source is clearly oil and gas. Other revenue sources include minerals, business parks, renewable energy, agriculture, master planned communities, and housing developments. The largest distributive solar array in the state is on trust land.
All net revenue generated from the school lands is placed in the New Mexico Land Grant Permanent Fund, where it is prudently and profitably invested by professional investment staff with oversight by the State Investment Council. The State Investment Officer is hired and fired by an 11 member committee that includes the Governor, the State Treasurer, the State Land Commissioner and others. The school funds are invested together with universities, hospitals, and other important institutional funds that were granted land at statehood. The School Fund currently comprises 87% of the funds.
Wise and prudent investment along with profitable oil and gas royalties and leases on the trust lands has led to rapid growth in the Land Grant Permanent Funds. The market value of the Permanent School Fund as of June 30, 2022, is over $21 billion. The five-year time weighted return net of fees is 7.14%.
New Mexico has 89 school districts teaching over 330,000 students in k-12 public schools. The annual distribution to schools from the Land Grant Permanent Funds provides approximately one-fourth of the entire education budget. Through prudent management of lands and funds and honoring the school trust created at statehood, New Mexico fulfills the vision of Thomas Jefferson, Hugh Williamson, David Howell, Elbridge Gerry, and Jacob Reed who first proposed granting lands to support public schools when they served on the Confederation Congress in 1784-1785.
FY2024 at a Glance
| Acres granted at statehood | 8,711,324 (1894; four sections per township for arid lands) |
|---|---|
| Surface acres currently held | 6.8 million |
| Mineral acres currently held | 9.8 million |
| Gross revenue (FY2022 baseline) | $2.2 billion (highest in 128 years since statehood; FY2024 figure data pending) |
| Permanent School Fund market value | $21 billion+ (Jun 30, 2022; FY2024 figure data pending) |
| FY2024 distribution to schools | Awaiting consolidated public disclosure (provides ~one-fourth of NM education budget) |
| 5-year time-weighted return (net of fees) | 7.14% |
Data: ASTL FY2024 state report. Some figures are pending or carried from prior years where indicated.