A Sacred Compact

The language relating to school trust lands in the current Minnesota Constitution remains substantially unchanged from the original language, requiring that:

• Income from the sale or other disposition of the land is to be deposited in the Permanent School Fund, the principal of which “shall be perpetual and inviolate forever;” and

• The “net interest and dividends arising from the Permanent School Fund shall be distributed to the different school districts of the state in a manner prescribed by law."

The Constitution is clear that the trust beneficiaries are Minnesota’s 329 public school districts and 181 charter schools currently educating nearly 850,000 K-12 students—and no one else. Our forefathers and foremothers recognized the importance of education to the lives of our children and to the success of democracy. They established school trust lands because land has enduring value. The granting and management of school trust lands are part of a well-crafted plan that has benefited education in Minnesota for more than 150 years. This plan is a sacred compact that school trust lands will always be used for the benefit of public school children, and a promise to generations to come that the legacy will continue forever.