After spending twelve years in a public education system, what basics would you hope children would learn? Well, we would want them to know enough English to be effective communicators in both written and spoken formats. We would like them to know enough math to make it through the grocery store. More importantly, we might expect them to have a sense of what it means to live in civil society, a sense of responsibility to their communities and the rules the community has embraced. We would also like them to be savvy enough not to be easily defrauded, and sensible enough to calculate their risks.

That is why the NC Education Lottery intends to increase its income by doubling what it spends on advertisements to seduce people into playing. Odds of winning will also be reduced. Get it? You’re a fool who will buy whatever a dorky ad is selling. The house always wins, but now it is winning twice as much. Play, you dork! Meanwhile, the presumably educated legislators don’t want to risk asking if you want to pay more taxes to pay teachers. They want you to play because you saw this real cool cowboy ad.