Wisconsin's School Trust Funds
BCPL manages four School Trust Funds for its beneficiaries, the largest and most important of which is the
Common School Fund. The School Trust Funds are carefully invested to produce strong earnings to support public education. One investment vehicle is the
BCPL State Trust Fund Loan Program, which lends money to school districts and municipalities for a wide variety of public purposes.
This
Summary of Trust Assets provides an overview of the origins, investments, earnings, and distributions of all four Trust Funds.
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Common School Fund
 Common School Fund - This Fund is as old as Wisconsin. The framers of our state Constitution established this permanent “school fund” and required that its income be applied exclusively “to the support and maintenance of common [public K-12] schools … and the purchase of suitable libraries and apparatus therefor.” |
Normal School Fund
Normal School Fund - Wisconsin became a state in 1848. Wisconsin’s newly adopted constitution contained a clause which established a “school fund” for the support and maintenance of “common” (public K-12) schools and “normal” schools (the French name for teacher colleges). The constitution provided that any fund income that was not needed for common schools would be used for normal schools. At that time, common schools were just being started and there were no normal schools in the state. It was quite a bit of foresight to establish a funding mechanism in the Constitution for the normal schools that did not yet exist. |
University Fund
University Fund - In
1838, Congress granted to the Territory of Wisconsin the equivalent of two townships, or 72 square miles of land, to be sold to support a university. In 1854, Congress granted more land—an additional two townships—to benefit a university. |
Agricultural College Fund
Agricultural College Fund - The Agricultural College Fund was established with a land grant pursuant to an 1862 act of Congress known as the “Morrill Act”. The law provided that each state was entitled to receive 30,000 acres of land for each member of Congress representing the state. Wisconsin had eight Congressional representatives, so received title to 240,000 acres of land. |
Common School Fund Distribution History
 Common School Fund Distribution History - The Common School Fund was established by Wisconsin's founders in Article 10 of the State Constitution as a permanent school trust fund. By investing in community projects throughout the state through the State Trust Fund Loan Program, the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands generates earnings for the Common School Fund that are distributed annually to public school libraries. These monies are the sole source of state funding for public school libraries. For many school districts this is the only money available to them for library materials including books, newspapers and periodicals, web-based resources, and computer hardware and software. |