Texas Lottery and Education Funding Essay Example for Free

Texas Lottery and Education Funding Essay Texans believe that participating in the Texas Lottery helps the Texas Education Foundation but little do they know; how much money actually goes to the Texas Education Foundation. The effect of the Texas Lottery is causing more of a negative impact on Texans than the Education Foundation is benefiting. The Texas Lottery negatively impacts the people that play the lottery and the programs that are supposed to benefit from the proceeds. Because of the big dream of winning, the lottery has taken a toll on Texans. â€Å"People believe that the Texas Lottery is their only chance to strike it rich† (Buckland, 2010). There is not near enough money going towards the Texas Education Foundation. When the lottery first started, the Texas Education Foundation was promised to benefit much more than they are now. Since 1996, the money raised for the Texas Education Foundation paid for two weeks of schooling but today it has plummeted greatly to only paying close to three days of schooling (Dexheimer, 2010). The outcome of the lottery is not what was projected. The current cash flow does not match the projections for the education fund as when the lottery was first initiated. â€Å"Last year, the lottery sold nearly $700 million more tickets than in 1998 – and gave schools $160 million less† (Dexheimer, 2010). The Texas Lottery is negatively impacting the poor and uneducated population. The Texas Lottery demographic studies provide contradictory information concerning the games and the profits benefiting the Texas Education Foundation, and prey on the poor (Turner, 2012). Statistics show the difference in average money gambled between the educated and uneducated population. â€Å"College graduates spent a median ten dollars a month; those without high school diplomas, $25† (Turner, 2012). This research proves the negative social impact of the Texas Lottery. â€Å"In one of the most depressing, ever perpetuating social economic trends, new research from the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty shows that poor people continue to spend about nine percent of their annual income on lottery tickets† (Buckland, 2010). Texans believe that the Lottery is benefiting the Education Foundation but in reality the Texas Education Foundation is not receiving their fair share of proceeds. Therefore, the Texas Lottery advertisement has been misleading to the public. In a nut shell, the Texas Lottery is not delivering the benefits that were promised for Texans. According to the Texas Lottery in 1992, approximately 27 cents of every dollar the organization earned went to support Texas Education, but then in 1997, the Texas Legislature stepped in and made a difference by dedicating Texas Lottery Funds to the Texas Foundation School Fund and the Texas Lottery funded 13 billion dollars just within that year of change. (Hood,2011). History In 1991, before the lottery was approved by Governor Ann Richards in a televised address, she told voters that they had to choose between a huge tax bill or the lottery, if they wanted good schools. Then The Robin Hood Plan was proposed in 1993. This plan was endorsed by the State to offer court mandated fair school funding for the schools in district. Similar to the tale of Robin Hood, the law collected property tax money from wealthy schools and redistributed the funding to poor schools attempting to balance all school districts in Texas. This plan ended up falling through because the Texas Supreme Court found that the majority of school districts were being taxed the maximum rate, which the Texas Constitution prohibits.(Heines and Tinsley, 1997). In 1997, the lottery funds were placed in a general fund that was distributed to public education, health, public safety and human services. â€Å"There is no question that the Texas Lottery is the most successful state lottery in the co untry and is contributing more than a billion dollars a year to state coffers† (Heines Tinsley 1997). This was the year where the State Representative Richard Raymond and D Benavides law makers believed that the lottery funds should be dedicated to education. Texans voted for a constitutional amendment that allowed funds of the lottery to be dedicated to education funding. But the Texas Legislature examined Lottery funds of other states including California and Florida who had dedicated lottery money to the education and discovered that these states had less money for education. Critics from this era believed that states without lotteries collected fewer taxes than the states with lotteries. (Heines Tinsley 1997). In 2009, a great amount of the stimulus funds were designated for education spending. The 91 billion dollars that was supported by this fund did not cover the total federal spending on education of the years 2008 to 2009 which summed up to be 667 billion dollars. An estimation of 570 billion dollars was not supported by the total education bill of federal spending. It costs an estimated 35 billion dollars to cover kindergarten through twelfth grade on a yearly basis. (Voice,2011). â€Å"Texas law says lottery proceeds are supposed to go toward education† (Oberg 2011). The lottery has only given one billion dollars every year to Texas Schools since 1998, but since lottery sales have become greater, the lottery has not been giving more money to the Texas schools. Even with the lottery earnings increasing the amount of money applied towards the Education Fund has not shown the difference of cash increase. One of the reasons why education is not benefiting is because the Lottery Managers are making the jackpots too large. So much so it is more than they can manage to afford. Sixty-two percent of money raised by the Lottery pays for the winners’ prizes. They also have to use ten percent of the money to run the lottery’s game and use more expenses to maintain the lottery program. After all of the money already mentioned is paid out, the little bit of money that is left is given to the Education Fund. (Work, 2011). In the years that the Texas Lottery has been contributing to the Education Fund, studies now show the truth on really how much is actually funding the schools. People can now be more informed on how the lottery distributes their funds and have an understanding of how much taxes public schools are being funded. With the Texas Lottery being in affect for many years it will never catch up to the economic growth of school finances. With each year school finances increases; the lottery should consider matching the percentage rate of education funding distributed from the lottery. If they cannot match the financial increases then the Texas Lottery should not be supported by Texans. As a result, The Texas Lottery has become a negative impact on the poor and uneducated and has not provided the dividends that were expected for all Texans. References Buckland, Jason. â€Å"How Lottery Tickets Ravage Low Income Families,† MSN MONEY, May 28, 2010. http://www.everydaymoney.ca/2010/05/how-lottery-tickets-ravage-lowincome-families.html Dexheimer, Eric. â€Å"A Different Game than State was Sold Two Decades Ago,† AMERICAN STATESMAN-STAFF, September 7, 2010. http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/texas-lottery-a-different-game-than-state-was-so-1/nRxZd/\ Heines, Vivienne and Tinsley, Anna M. â€Å" Most Texans think lottery is good way for state to raise money† Harte-Hanks Communications, February 24, 1997. http://www.texnews.com/texas97/texpoll022497.html Hood, Rebecca. â€Å"I Wonder: Texas Lottery and Education,† KVUE.COM, April 4, 2011. http://www.kvue.com/news/local/I-Wonder-Texas-Lottery-and-education-119036764.html Oberg, Ted. â€Å"How Much of your Lottery ticket is helping education† ABC 13 News, May 18, 2011. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/in_focusid=8136388 Turner, Allan. â€Å"Texas Lottery Proved Popular Last Year,† HOUSTON CHRONICLE, January 18, 2012. http://www.chron.com/news/texas-lottery/article/Texas-Lottery-proved-popular-last-year-2591258.php Voice â€Å"Getting Educated† The Daily Hurricane, March 28,2011. http://dailyhurricane.com/2011/03/gambling-with-our-chidrens-education-and-our-future.html Work, Ann. â€Å"Schools get $1 billion from lottery† Times Record News, April 28,2011 http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2011/apr/28/schools-get-1-billion-from-lottery/?print=1. Bibliography BUCKLAND, JASON. â€Å"How Lottery Tickets Ravage Low Income Families,† MSN MONEY, May 28, 2010. http://www.everydaymoney.ca. (11/19/2012). DEXHEIMER, ERIC. â€Å"A Different Game than State was Sold Two Decades Ago,† AMERICAN STATESMAN-STAFF, September 7, 2010. http//www.statesman.com. (11/19/2012). HEINES, VIVIENNE and TINSLEY M. ANNA. â€Å"Most Texans Think Lottery is Good Way for State to Raise Money† HARTE-HANKS COMMUNICATIONS, February 24,1997. http://www.texnews.com. (11/19/2012) HOOD, REBECCA. â€Å"I Wonder: Texas Lottery and Education,† KVUE.COM, April 4, 2011. http://www.kvue.com. (11/19/2012). OBERG,TED. â€Å"How Much of Your Lottery Ticket is Helping Education,† ABC 13 NEWS, May, 18, 2011. http://abclocal.go.com. (11/19/2012). TURNER, ALLAN. â€Å"Texas Lottery Proved Popular Last Year,† HOUSTON CHRONICLE, January 18, 2012. http://www.chron.com.(11/19/2012). VOICE. â€Å"Getting Educated,† THE DAILY HURRICANE, March 28,2011. http://dailyhurricane.com. (11/19/2012). WORK, ANN. â€Å"Schools Get $1 Billion from Lottery,† TIMES RECORD NEWS, April 28, 2011. http://www.timesrecordnews.com. (11/19/2012) Work Cited 1.Jason Buckland. â€Å"How Lottery Tickets Ravage Low Income Families,† MSN MONEY, May 28, 2010. 2. Eric Dexheimer. â€Å"A Different Game than State was Sold Two Decades Ago,† AMERICAN STATESMAN-STAFF, September 7, 2010. 3.Eric Dexheimer, Pg. 1. 4.Allan Turner. â€Å"Texas Lottery Proved Popular Last Year,† HOUSTON CHRONICLE, January 18, 2012. 5. Allan Turner, Pg. 1. 6. Jason Buckland. Pg.1. 7.Rebecca Hood. â€Å"I Wonder: Texas Lottery and Education,† KVUE.COM, April 4, 2011. 8. Vivienne Heines and Anna M. Tinsley â€Å" Most Texans Think Lottery is Good Way for State to Raise Money† HARTE-HANKS COMMUNICATIONS, February 24, 1997. 9. Voice â€Å"Getting Educated† THE DAILY HURRICANE, March 28,2011. 10. Vivienne Heines and Anna M. Tinsley, Pg. 1. 11. Voice, Pg. 1. 12. Ted Oberg â€Å"How Much of your Lottery ticket is helping education† ABC 13 News, May 18, 2011. 13. Ann Work â€Å"Schools get $1 billion from lottery† Times Record News, April 28,2011.