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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- As oil prices soar, so does revenue school trust land revenue.
Most of the trust land's revenue is from natural gas and oil development, said David Hebertson, spokesman for Utah School Trust Lands.
"Our mineral income makes up more than two-thirds of the total amount of the trust. We've had three record years in a row because of increasing fuel prices, and we expect that trend to continue," he said.
The fund has seen a nearly 108 percent increase in revenue from oil, gas and minerals since 2003.
School trust lands are 3.3 million acres the federal government gave Utah when it became a state. The fund has about one-half billion dollars in it, and Utah schools receive most of the interest that comes from that money.
This year, schools received about $14 million. Ten 10 percent of the cash is divided equally among all 40 districts and the remaining 90 percent is distributed on a per-pupil basis.
Jordan School District, the state's largest, received about $1.9 million this year and is expected to receive about $2.1 million next year. Each school's principal and community council decides how to use its money, which works out to about $28 per student.
"The individual schools have a wide variety of uses for the money, but the bulk usually funds more one-on-one or small-group instruction," said Dana Bickmore, a Trust Land specialist for the Jordan School District.
Many elementary schools use the money to focus on individualized reading help, while high schools often provide remediation for students who struggle to pass the high school exit exam, said Theresa Gotay of the Jordan district.
While increasing oil prices are benefiting one area of children's education, they are make school transportation expenses worse.
Many school districts are reducing the number of field trips they offer, or taking shorter, walking field trips.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
