One of the most troubling aspects of the state lottery is the way in which certain education programs have been tied so directly to the success or failure of the state-run numbers game.
Two Duke professors tackle that issue in a News & Observer op ed today:
Whatever the payout rate, the lottery will remain too unstable to be the sole revenue source for important public programs like preschool education and college scholarships for low-income students. If state support for early childhood education, school construction and college scholarships is in the public interest, then let’s arrange secure funding for those programs, rather than linking their budgets to inherently unstable lottery revenues. If we want to earmark lottery revenues, then put them into a trust fund like those we have for highways or Social Security, so that annual expenses are not held hostage to annual revenues.
We can quibble about the importance of these programs, but the basic thrust of the paragraph is sound. If these programs are high-priority items for the state budget, they should be funded through normal means. Items lower on the priority list should get less funding or no funding.
The state should not have to rely on the gullibility of its taxpayers to fund major programs.
