Stealing from a John Oliver early bit here, but money is fungible, they say that but they take money they would give normally to the school to other things balancing it out
My favorite is Pennsylvania saying they’ll give it to the olds. Not even pretending not to pander to the boomers
Hey it’s for the schools, old people, etc. at least that’s what’s advertised.
In reality they just take that money back in the general budget and do something else with it.
Lottery gives schools $1B, then the legislature gives the school $1B less elsewhere. It’s a shell game. And my pony sucks at shell games.
I have no idea if there is any shady financial stuff or grifting going on in Georgia (it’s the lottery, so it’s probably not 100% on the up and up), but it really has helped education here. It funds public pre-K programs and the HOPE Scholarship. The latter has been pretty incredible - pays for most or all of in-state public college and university tuition for students who qualify (and it’s not hard to qualify - you don’t need a 4.0 in all AP courses or anything). Even pays for some of private college tuition - same amount as public, it’s just that it obviously doesn’t go as far.
They actually made the requirements more difficult a number of years ago because the program was so popular.
Granted, there are still all the other expenses like books, room and board, fees, etc.
EDIT: Don’t know if it played a role, but one of my daughter’s friends got into Duke and Northwestern, among other schools, and opted for UGA.
The HOPE scholarship is absolutely fantastic policy. Good job Georgia, sincerely.
As much as I’d love my daughter to get into/go to better schools (she’s a great student, but in this competitive environment, any top 25 school is a huge longshot), I’d be thrilled if she got into UGA. I think she’d be pretty happy with it, too.
ETA:
Actually a hilarious clawback of the 4 day work week comment for his employees.
I was totally blown away by Florida’s Bright Futures program while living down there. It never made sense to me that Florida legislature could actually craft something valuable for it’s youth. Now I realize they simply tried to replicate Georgia’s HOPE scholarship and it makes a lot more sense.
I was Googling Florida International University out of curiosity while watching one of their football games last year and I was shocked that it’s a top 10 US University by enrollment, and that Florida has 3 of the top 10.
Somehow Florida actually invested in public higher education as their population grew while these liberal East Coast states have laughable public institutions compared to their private ones (Looking at you Massachusetts)
University of Florida has also seemingly improved quite a bit as an institution over the last 20 years or so. It was just sneaking into to US News top 50. Now they are tied with UCSD, UCD, USC at 28th overall nationally and a top 10 public university in the US!
LOL US News or whatever, just a quick metric that actually tracks back 20 years.
Yay freedom and all but Lotteries are one of those things I’d be fine disappearing from the earth. Poor people wasting money on lotto tickets so that middle class people get a cheaper tuition bill is just such a dumb way to structure an education system.
I would not want to eat in a restaurant that smells like weed.
I am a foaming-at-the-mouth lotto hater, but the most amazing part of the whole deal is how the use the “it’s for the schools” nonsense as if it should be a selling point. Can you imagine if the school budget was really directly contingent on lotto ticket sales?
For the most part the OG state lottos were the “pick four” types that still run in most states today. These were directly modeled off of mob-run numbers running rackets. The vig on those rackets varied but were often in the 25% range. When the states got involved they generally took a 50% cut which is still typical. More recent variations are often worse.
If I lived in Colorado, every time I buy weed I would think “It’s for the schools.”
south texas had bad luck, but further north was decent. hope you and your fam were lucky. i saw it across from a hill with an entire elementary school on it. much screaming
Are all of you lottery haters against things like casinos, sportsbooks, and horse racing?
Yes. Gambling should be illegal.
damn, that’s impressive. do you how much per year does lottery bring into public colleges?
there is some research that an appropriate measure of randomness in distribution of money is good for local economies. Spanish Christmas Lottery - Wikipedia
