Common School Fund earnings distributed to public school districts 

ODE distributed $24,273,300 in investment earnings from the Common School Fund at the end of December, up from July's biennial distribution of $22.7 million.

ODE distributes the funds using a sliding-scale policy based on the annual change in value of the fund, which now has a balance of over $1 billion. Each county's population of 4-to-20-year-olds determines that county's share of earnings. 

Table of December 2006 Common School Fund distributions to districts

"We predict that the fund will continue to climb in value and produce increased earnings," said Julie Curtis of the Department of State Lands, which manages the resources for the State Land Board. "Of course, we can't guarantee that. Annual distributions in recent years have fluctuated from $9 million to $45 million, depending on board policies and market conditions."

The Oregon Investment Council invests the fund to fulfill the constitutional mandate to the State Land Board (the governor, the secretary of state, and the state treasurer) to manage lands under its care to obtain the greatest benefit for Oregonians, consistent with the conservation of the resources under sound techniques of land management. By law, the funds are dedicated for support and maintenance of common schools in each school district. 

At statehood, the federal government granted Oregon roughly six percent of the new state's land to support K-12 public schools. The Oregon Constitution dedicated the school lands and their mineral, timber and other resources to the Common School Fund. The Oregon Constitution established the Land Board as trustee of the Common School Fund. The Department of State Lands is the administrative agency of the State Land Board.

The resources dedicated to Oregon's Common School Fund:

• Land: Nearly 636,600 acres of rangeland and agricultural land and 3,155 acres of industrial, commercial and residential lands. Forest: About 105,800 acres of working forest, including the Elliott State Forest, and about 24,000 acres designated for special stewardship (riparian habitat, steep slopes, wildlife habitat).
• Waterways: 800,000 acres of land under navigable and tidal waters held in trust for public navigation, recreation, fisheries and commerce. 
• Unclaimed property: Abandoned funds, such as bank accounts, unclaimed checks and abandoned safe-deposit boxes. Estates of those who die without wills and or known heirs.

The agency leases range and agricultural land and waterways for a variety of business activities. The Oregon Department of Forestry manages forestland under contract with the Land Board.