Seen an improvement in schools since we got the NC Education Lottery?? (sales, purchases)

[Awakening Escapade]

It took some effort to get a lottery in NC.
It was voted on a number of times before passing the NC Education Lottery.

Has anyone seen any real improvements in their local schools since we got the Education Lottery?

Recently Wake County implemented a hiring freeze.
In Dec. they announced an $11M budget cut.
Granted we are going through a tough economic time- but seriously has anyone seen the difference that we should have expected for our schools with millions of new revenue generated from the Education Lottery?

It seems to me that teachers have continued to struggle with the same problems that existed before we had millions coming in from the Education Lottery. (Low teacher pay, high classroom ratio, lack of supplies, running out of paper before the end of the school yr. and needing to make purchases out of pocket.)

Love to hear about all the wonderful things the NC Education Lottery has done to improve NC schools.

[Francois]

This really should go in the General NC section, not the Triangle region.

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by Francois

This really should go in the General NC section, not the Triangle region.

Maybe to Politics and Other Controversies or a Mythology section, since no one functioning at the cognitive level of a crape myrtle believed for a nanosecond that Educational benefit was a motivating force for a Lottery in North Carolina.

Bribery scandals before the first ticket was scratched weren't over whose textbooks to offer....

[Awakening Escapade]

Oops - U are right. Can I move or delete my post or is that only a staff thing?

[ncbear]

Before this thread gets moved/locked, a couple of thoughts:

1. Lottery revenues would have no effect on hiring freezes, operating budget issues. The revenue largely goes to pay for capital projects, i.e. buildings.

2. For Wake, the county doesn't really see a comparatively large sum of money because its distributed not based on population.

3. I'm not a huge proponent of the lottery, but a decent chunk of change was already flowing out of state; might as well keep it home.

[daveraleigh]

Originally Posted by ncbear

but a decent chunk of change was already flowing out of state; might as well keep it home.

Word.

[Waterboy526]

The lottery was never meant to make children better students. From what I understand it's used for capital projects mostly and it probably helps Wake fund one new school a year if that. I don't know why people have this grand vision of the lottery being a cure all for all that is wrong with NC school systems. Why do people get so upset when they realize that it's not changing school test scores for the better? It was never meant to do that and the GREATEST thing about the lottery is you don't ever have to pay a cent to fund it if you don't want to.

Lottery = poor mans 401k

[CHTransplant]

Absolutely - my kids are now much more able to calculate the odds of winning any given gamble.

The lottery is a tax on stupidity. The more stupidity you have, the more of the tax you pay.

[Asheville Native]

The NC Education Lootery is a tax on those that need more education in math, a.k.a a tax on stupid.

Nor does it benefit education by providing additional money to the schools, it is merely used to replace money from the general fund which is no longer spent on education, but used on pork projects.

Fortunately, as a tax on stupidity, it hasn't cost me a single penny.

[silverwing]

Originally Posted by daveraleigh

Word.

Double word

I just did a few searches: before the NC lottery was organized, an estimated $100 million flowed into VA each year. An estimated $36 million was lost in sales tax.

Yeah, it's a tax on the stupid, but at least the stupid money stays here