Recently in school trust history
Idaho Admission
Idaho admitted with sections 16 and 36 of each township granted in trust for schools. Idaho's Endowment Fund Investment Board continues to manage the proceeds today.
Coalition · The Ledger
Where the receipts are missing.
Twenty states still hold school trust lands. 7 of 20 publish complete public accounting. The rest do not — yet. ASTL is asking for the records.
For reporters
The claim. Twenty states still hold school trust lands. Seven of them publish complete public accounting. The rest do not — yet.
The definition. Complete accounting means current fund value, FY distribution, acres held, and a beneficiary-by-beneficiary disbursement schedule, all publicly accessible.
The caution. Disclosure status is not a finding of legal breach. A state marked "Awaiting Disclosure" may simply not yet have consolidated its public reporting.
The action. Contact ASTL for sources or a correction.
Know a source we should add, or a figure to amend? Send a correction or source → Correction · Ledger
Cross-state quotables
Numbers safe enough to quote, with dates attached.
These figures were moved here from the retired Press Room so each number lives beside the state-by-state disclosure wall. Per-state cards below carry the source trail and last-verified dates.
20
States that still hold school trust lands granted at statehood.
- trust-lands states
- 20
verified
Last verified May 2026 — ASTL editorial review
Disclosure gap
Many trust-lands states still do not publish enough public accounting for independent audit.
- exact count
- under reconciliation
partial
Last verified Jun 2026 — ASTL ledger reconciliation
$4 billion
Utah permanent State School Fund — grown from $41M through structural reform (the SITLA benchmark).
- Utah permanent fund
- $4B
verified
Last verified Mar 2026 — SITLA annual report
$106M
Utah's FY2024 distribution to public schools from the permanent State School Fund.
- Utah FY2024 distribution
- $106M
verified
Last verified Mar 2026 — SITLA / Utah State Treasurer
$76.8M
Oregon's FY2025 distribution to the Common School Fund — alongside an operating loss flagged in the substrate.
- Oregon FY2025 distribution
- $76.8M
verified
Last verified Mar 2026 — Oregon DSL / CSF report
$1.01M
Mount Baker School District annual revenue shortfall — one Washington beneficiary, traceable to a discount-rate distortion.
- annual shortfall
- $1.01M
verified
Last verified Apr 2026 — ASTL Mount Baker brief
1
Oregon — the only state operating its school trust at a significant loss.
- states operating at a loss
- 1
verified
Last verified Mar 2026 — ASTL editorial review
1785
Land Ordinance — the federal act that established dedicated land sections for public schools.
- origin
- 1785
verified
Last verified May 2026 — Historical
Arizona
PublishedHealthy
Arizona State Land Department posts annual statements; State Treasurer reports the Permanent Fund balance.
State Land Department and State Treasurer both report consistently.
Last verified May 2026
Idaho
PublishedHealthy
Idaho Department of Lands and Endowment Fund Investment Board both publish current reports.
Department of Lands and Endowment Fund Investment Board both publish current reports.
Last verified May 2026
New Mexico
PublishedReform leader
State Land Office and State Investment Council both publish current trust accounting. Reform-leader benchmark.
Top-quartile reform; Land Office and Investment Council both publish.
Last verified May 2026
Texas
PublishedReform leader
Permanent School Fund issues annual financial reports through the GLO and SBOE.
Permanent School Fund issues annual reports through GLO and SBOE.
Last verified May 2026
Utah
PublishedReform leader
SITLA publishes a complete annual report: fund value, FY distribution, acres held, and beneficiary disbursements. Reform-leader benchmark.
SITLA model; constitutional 5% distribution upgrade approved 2024.
Last verified May 2026
Washington
PublishedReform leader
FY reports current; SB 5994 disclosure reforms signed March 2026.
First state to legislate against discount-rate distortions in trust-asset valuation (SB 5994, March 2026).
Last verified May 2026
Wyoming
PublishedHealthy
Office of State Lands and Investments publishes the trust land annual report on schedule.
Office of State Lands and Investments publishes the trust land annual report on schedule.
Last verified May 2026
Montana
PartialMixed
FY2024 ongoing distribution disclosed at $60M; one-time included at $92M, but a unified beneficiary-by-beneficiary disbursement schedule is not consistently posted.
Per-beneficiary disbursement schedule not consistently posted.
Help us obtain the beneficiary schedule →
Last verified May 2026
Oklahoma
PartialMixed
Margaret Bird state report (draft) flags substrate uncertainty on the fund figure; current-year accounting not consistently posted.
Substrate uncertainty on the fund figure; current-year accounting not consistently posted.
Help us obtain the audit record →
Last verified May 2026
Oregon
PartialBreach
Active litigation; permanent fund value and FY distribution disclosed but trust performance contested.
Active litigation; live test case for fiduciary doctrine.
Help us obtain the audit record →
Last verified May 2026
South Dakota
PartialMixed
Permanent fund value and FY distribution available; mineral-acre revenue detail and per-beneficiary schedule incomplete.
Mineral-acre revenue detail and per-beneficiary schedule incomplete.
Help us obtain the audit record →
Last verified May 2026
Alaska
Awaiting DisclosureUnscored
Trust accounting not consolidated in a single public report; agency data pending compilation.
Trust-performance score withheld pending public disclosure.
Help us obtain this record →
Last verified May 2026
Colorado
Awaiting DisclosureUnscored
State Land Board and Treasurer figures not yet reconciled into a public school-trust statement we can cite.
Trust-performance score withheld pending public disclosure.
Help us obtain this record →
Last verified May 2026
Minnesota
Awaiting DisclosureUnscored
Permanent School Fund detail not yet imported; current-year accounting awaiting confirmation.
Trust-performance score withheld pending public disclosure.
Help us obtain this record →
Last verified May 2026
Mississippi
Awaiting DisclosureUnscored
Sixteenth-section trust accounting not consistently posted statewide; county-level disclosure incomplete.
Trust-performance score withheld pending public disclosure.
Help us obtain this record →
Last verified May 2026
Nebraska
Awaiting DisclosureUnscored
Subject of the Crowe-via-Bird letter on Permanent Fund management; current accounting not consistently posted.
Trust-performance score withheld pending public disclosure.
Help us obtain this record →
Last verified May 2026
Nevada
Awaiting DisclosureUnscored
Trust-land accounting not currently published in unified form.
Trust-performance score withheld pending public disclosure.
Help us obtain this record →
Last verified May 2026
North Dakota
Awaiting DisclosureUnscored
Board of University and School Lands data exists; consolidated public-facing trust statement awaiting compilation.
Trust-performance score withheld pending public disclosure.
Help us obtain this record →
Last verified May 2026
Wisconsin
Awaiting DisclosureUnscored
Board of Commissioners of Public Lands annual figures not consolidated in a citable public statement we can confirm.
Trust-performance score withheld pending public disclosure.
Help us obtain this record →
Last verified May 2026
California
No Surviving GrantFailed
California's school-land grant was largely dissipated historically; no surviving permanent fund to account for at the federal-grant scale.
School-land grant largely dissipated historically.
Last verified May 2026
How we score disclosure and trust posture
Each card carries up to two badges. They are different facts.
Disclosure describes what is publicly available. A state is marked Published when its trust-land agency and treasurer post a current annual report covering the permanent fund value, the fiscal-year distribution to beneficiaries, acres held, and a clear per-beneficiary disbursement schedule. Partial means some of those elements are public but not all — frequently the beneficiary schedule or the audit-quality reconciliation is missing. Awaiting Disclosure means ASTL has not been able to locate a current consolidated statement at all; this is not an accusation, it is an open request.
Trust posture describes how the state appears to be performing as trustee, where the record supports a judgment. Reform leader is the top-quartile model (Utah's SITLA is the canonical example). Healthy, Mixed, Breach, and Failed / grant lost map to substrate findings of stewardship quality. Unscored is the honest mark for states where insufficient public disclosure exists to score trust performance at all.
No Surviving Grant covers states whose federal school-lands grant was dissipated historically — California is the canonical example. Not a Trust-Lands State covers the original thirteen and other states that were never recipients of the western-style federal grant; they are listed in the appendix below for completeness.
Source data is drawn from ASTL's working record of state pages, the Margaret Bird state-by-state reports, and direct review of each state's agency publications. Each card carries a "Last verified" date so readers can judge freshness.
Our scoring of any state is open to correction. Send a correction or source → Correction · Ledger methodology
States without a federal school-lands grant
These 30 states were not recipients of the western-style federal school-lands grant at statehood. They are listed for completeness; no disclosure scoring applies.
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Missouri
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Vermont
- Virginia
- West Virginia