Welcome to America's School Trust Library. Explore the history of land
set aside to support public schools and the records of how states manage
it. The Library brings together books, maps, financial reports, legal
documents, and news so you can see what was promised, what the land
earned, and what each state makes public. This tour shows you where to
begin.
School Trusts
Compare states and State land maps
Use Compare states to explore differences in school trust lands, funds,
and public records. Use State land maps to find available maps and see
what each state publishes about the location of its trust lands.
Compare school trust funds and payments to schools across states.
Trust finances shows how well each figure is supported by sources and
makes gaps in the available financial information clear.
Browse Books & documents for reading organized by topic, including
history, laws, and research. For information about a particular state,
choose Find your state under School Trusts in the menu.
The Writing Room is open to readers. Browse a draft handbook on
school trust law; The Forgotten
Forever Gift to Public Schools, a history; Who Steals from
Children, the Oregon record; and Stewards of the Republic,
ideas for the future. Read essays on building institutions that
support public schools for generations.
School trust news follows developments in school trust lands and funds,
including court filings, hearings, and settlements. Commentary shares
contributors' views on what the records show. A free Library Card lets
you track your reading and contribute to the Library.
Where school trust law is studied, cited, and put to work.
Court Room · Lobby
The Court Room holds the legal record of America's school trust lands.
It is the room where the doctrinal lineage of trust law — Magna Carta
to the Statute of Uses to the modern Uniform Trust Code — meets the
trust-lands states, the binding precedents that govern them,
and the Attorney General opinions that interpret their enabling acts.
It is also the room where Oregon's litigation is followed in detail,
because Oregon is where the enforceability of a state's school-trust
duties has most recently been tested in court.
Four subsections sit behind the doors below. State Attorney General
opinions live inside each state's dossier under
The Atlas, where they're most useful to a
reader working on that state.
