Thank you for the excellent and informative news story about the sale to the federal government of Minnesota’s school trust lands located within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. State Rep. Roger Skraba has announced that he opposes the sale; his stated reasons are misguided and ill-informed. A sale/purchase would be in the best financial interest of Minnesota’s school children. It would certainly be legal.
School trust lands were granted to the state of Minnesota upon statehood for the purpose of funding education. Over time most of Minnesota’s school trust lands were sold. The sale proceeds, in addition to income from retained lands, were deposited in a Permanent School Fund. The Permanent School Fund is managed by the state Board of Investment to provide public education funding in perpetuity. Fifty-one million dollars for public education was distributed from the Permanent School Fund for the 2023-24 school year.
More than 30 years ago, a sale of school trust lands within the Boundary Waters was proposed. Over the years, a sale has been frustrated because of opposition from some northern Minnesotan lawmakers.
Financial analyses time and again have shown that the students would be better off if the school trust lands in the Boundary Waters were sold to the federal government and the proceeds deposited into the Permanent School Fund. A land exchange for federal lands outside the Boundary Waters and development of such newly acquired state lands for logging and mining returns less financial reward than a sale.
You might ask, then, why someone would oppose the best financial outcome for students and education? It seems that some northern lawmakers prefer to cater to their logging and mining buddies. Perhaps there is also a desire to shrink the Superior National Forest in an anti-federal public lands fever.
Skraba claims a sale to the federal government is not authorized by law. Not so. On Sept. 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed two bills into law. The first bill was the Wilderness Act, which designated the Boundary Waters as National Wilderness. The second bill he signed established the Land & Water Conservation Fund, which funds federal acquisition of lands, including Minnesota’s school trust lands within the Boundary Waters.
Minnesotans should fully support the proposal by the state of Minnesota and the U.S. Forest Service to sell Minnesota’s school trust lands within the Boundary Waters to the federal government as in the best interests of education and our children. An important lesson learned is to never seek financial or legal advice from Roger Skraba.
Becky Rom
Ely