Putting Millions Into Classrooms Every Year
The act of Congress admitting Oregon to the Union in 1859 granted nearly 3.4 million acres of the new state’s land "for the use of schools." The State Land Board was established to oversee the “school lands” and has been the trustee of the Common School Fund for more than 150 years.
School lands and their mineral resources, submerged and submersible lands underlying the state´s tidal and navigable waterways, and unclaimed property held in trust all contribute to the corpus of the fund.
The State Treasurer and the Oregon Investment Council invest the Common School Fund. In recent years, fund values have ranged from $600 million to more than $2 billion, depending on market conditions.
Every one of Oregon’s 197 public school districts receives money from the Common School Fund every year, with a maximum annual distribution rate of 3.5 percent of the Fund. Distributions in recent years have ranged from a low of $13 million in 2004 to a high of $72.2 million in 2023.
2023 Distributions: How Much Did Your District Get?
A record $72.2 million went to Oregon's K-12 public school districts from the Common School Fund in 2023. How much each district receives depends on the number of students served. For example, Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest district, will receive $6.4 million in 2023. The average 2023 distribution is approximately $367,000.