An interesting report at WRAL suggests that the proportion of revenues from the NC Education Lottery directed to public schools is at an all-time low. It has declined to only 16%.
When the lottery started years ago, there was a constant refrain that other states had a lottery, and our schools needed the money. Yet in spite of the lottery, there is a near-constant drumbeat from the education establishment that more money is needed. The lottery has not satisfied them.
And only 16 pennies on each dollar spent on the lottery goes to the schools. We have this enormous blight on our state in the form of a lottery, with all the adverse impacts associated with gambling; and yet it has had virtually no impact.
Isn’t it funny how that works?
The lottery is a tax on the poor. Chances of winning are the same as being struck by lightening twice. Many winners recklessly spend thru their fortune and wind up broke. Yes, the educational establishment has an insatiable appetite for more money and the 16% is not good enough.
I wonder if the lottery would have been approved, Fred, if it was known that only 16 percent of revenues would go to education. It seems we ought to revisit the whole thing.