So say the bumper stickers in my state (SC) advocating a lottery.
SC is one of the few states not currently running a lottery, but the governor is pushing hard for it. It is being sold as an “education lottery.” That is the buzz word for it.
What is it about lottery money that improves education?
I have heard people from one state (GA) mention that the lottery has done a lot of good there, but they didn’t have any details.
I’m not philosophically opposed to lotteries, but I would thing that a plethora of educated people is the last thing you’d want in a state depending on lottery money for income.
Any meaningful dollars diverted to education should be guaranteed. Also, you might check to see how education is funded in your state. If it’s not guaranteed, what happens, as in my state (California) is that funds originally directed for education is diverted for other uses, with the excuse that the lottery dollars will make up the difference. So what i’m trying to say is that, it’s a good thing provided that the lottery money would be over and above current education spending.
hijack/ I mean good thing as a source of revenue for schools. I just want to pre-empt arguments about how the economically disadvantaged get taken advantage of, etc.
end hijack/
In every state I’ve lived in, the “lottery money goes to education” claim is actually nonsense.
For example, if the state allocated $100 million to education annually before the lottery, when the lottery proceeds work out to $50 million per year, the state legislature effectively says “Look at all this lottery money! We’ll cut education funds gathered by taxes by $50 million.”
Net result, education funds don’t go up, and the lottery proceeds effectively go into the state’s general fund.