The school districts in Oregon to receive further record payment of government land revenues • YachateNews.com

By Oregon Capital Chronicle

The 197 school districts of Oregon will receive additional funds of almost 77 million US dollars from income from rental contracts and industries in state areas this year.

This is a record release of the Common School Fund and 2.5 million US dollars more than received from the fund in 2024, officials from the Oregon Department of State Lands announced last week. There are $ 12 million than districts that were received by the fund three years ago in 2022.

All districts receive financing based on the number of students that they serve. The average district in 2025 will receive around 390,000 dollars – sufficient to hire about five teachers, according to the state's calculations.

The Lincoln County school district receives 681,710 US dollars. The largest district of the state, Portland public school, will receive around 6.6 million dollars. Districts usually receive their first payments in February and their second in July.

The Common School Fund has existed for more than 160 years when the congress decided to assign almost 3.4 million tomorrow to the newly founded state of Oregon to earn money for schools.

The state sold a large part of the country. Today, only about 20% of the original allocation still generate income for schools through land rental contracts to farmers and cattle breeders, tribal governments, lumberjack companies and other companies.

These countries contribute around 7 million US dollars a year to the Common School Fund, which is invested by the state treasury in Oregon. Today's fund has a value of almost 2.4 billion US dollars, but about 3.5% of the fund are distributed annually in schools.

“The joint school fund is consistent and can be used for everything, from storing light to the provision of lessons,” said Benjamin Dodds, social scientist at Willamette High School, in a press release.

The Bethel School District, in which Dodds works, receives more than 800,000 US dollars from the fund in 2025.

The schools receive most of their funding from the state's general fund, which delivers about two thirds of the school budget. Governor Tina Kotek has asked the legislator to assign almost $ 11.4 billion for the school years 2025-26 and 2026-27, compared to $ 10.2 billion in the last two-year budget cycle.

• Oregon Capital Chronicle is a non-profit Salem-based intelligence service that focuses on his reporting on the government of Oregon State, politics and politics.