The Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of Advocates for School Trust Lands v. State of Oregon, confirming Oregon students have the legal right to hold the State accountable for the Common School Fund. The case proceeds; we are recruiting student co-plaintiffs.
Oregon entered the Union in 1859. As part of the federal compact, Congress granted Oregon two sections out of every 36-section township for the perpetual support of the common schools. Most of those lands were sold by the end of the nineteenth century. The proceeds became the Common School Fund — held in trust, in perpetuity, for the schoolchildren of Oregon.
In the 1920s, a State Forester named Francis Elliott consolidated the remaining scattered school-trust lands into a single contiguous forest now known as the Elliott State Forest. The Common School Fund and the Elliott State Forest are the heart of Oregon’s surviving school-trust endowment.
OASTL exists because the trust has been broken, the funds redirected, and the beneficiaries — the schoolchildren — left without legal voice. The January 2026 appellate ruling changes the last part of that sentence.
You can enroll your child as a Class A member ($1/year) — the practical step that puts Oregon students in standing to sue.
Enroll your child →Oregon’s appellate court just confirmed your standing. Ask a parent to enroll you; you can be named in the next phase of the case.
Become a co-plaintiff →You see the funding gap up close. Class B membership ($5/year) joins the coalition with full voting rights.
Join Class B →The Common School Fund is your inheritance too. Class B is open to any Oregonian 18+; nonprofits join as Class C.
Join the coalition →Twenty states received federal school-trust grants at admission. Each manages its trust differently; only a few have ever faced beneficiary-led enforcement litigation. Oregon’s January 2026 appellate victory is the precedent the other nineteen will be watching.
See the national picture at ASTL’s State Tracker →
by Margaret Bird & Dave Sullivan
The Oregon-specific case for fiduciary accountability. The billion-dollar betrayal of Oregon’s school trust lands, and the constitutional argument for restoring them.
Advocates for School Trust Lands v. State of Oregon. Lead Appellate Counsel Natalie Scott of The Scott Law Group argued the case at Corvallis High School — the "Corvallis Effect" of putting student beneficiaries visibly in the room.
The opinion is precedential. Read the full account on the Legal Desk. →