Texas, at least, invested a large portion of their oil windfall in the "Permanent Fund" which is used to endow the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. It helped build two academic powerhouse institutions, keep tuition low enough for tens of thousands to attend who might not otherwise have had the means, and turn out several hundred thousand excellent graduates in engineering, business, science, mathematics, medicine, law, agriculture, military science and many other disciplines.
In my opinion, it is far wiser to invest in persons who can build, maintain, grow and defend the stock market than the stock market per se.
Pennsylvania is 46th in the nation in per capita job creation and has a governor working hard to make us 50th.
Our taxes are high, our state universities so pricey that I have to send my kids out of state, but we do have one of the best-paid legislatures in the nation.