Looks like maybe the lottery isn't the cure-all for education woes... Take this story from our neighbor to the south...

http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/8936322.html

Quote :

"South Carolina could see lottery-based scholarships decline because of dropping revenues. The cash is also spread thin because more and more students are qualifying for the scholarships. The Senate Finance chairman warns leaders might have to start limiting the scholarships to keep the state from having to pay for them out of general funds."

How dare the state have to keep its promises

8/6/2007 7:37:31 PM

anybody who ever thought the education lottery would INCREASE our education budget was a fucking lunatic. It's been crooked from the get-go and has only lowered education spending in the state. Complete bullshit, at least Jim Black is going to prison.

8/6/2007 7:39:55 PM

^

[Edited on August 6, 2007 at 7:40 PM. Reason : Absolutely agree.]

8/6/2007 7:40:45 PM

Too bad they'll never do away with the lottery.

They should review for repeal everything Black ever had his hands on.

8/6/2007 7:41:58 PM

so, can we have a recall election for the lottery?

8/6/2007 7:42:06 PM

^^Actually, I see that being a distinct possibility after the next congressional elections.

8/6/2007 7:59:14 PM

I think we need to stay the course.

8/6/2007 8:11:17 PM

A surge in lottery dollars would be the best option

8/6/2007 8:27:53 PM

no,reinstating the original education budget AND supplementing it with the educaiton lottery would be the solution, since that's what was promised to us in the beginning.

8/6/2007 8:51:10 PM

we can't cut and run

8/6/2007 9:20:31 PM

A lottery "taxes" only the willing.

8/7/2007 12:05:49 AM

Quote :

"Noen: no,reinstating the original education budget AND supplementing it with the educaiton lottery would be the solution, since that's what was promised to us in the beginning."

Even that doesn't work, because it alters expectations. Lottery revenues are inherently unstable -- they're basically a more-volatile form of a sales tax. Assuming lottery proceeds were only supplemental, you'd still have education leaders coming to expect that new level of funding they receive... and then have to figure out a way to deal with the shortfalls when you have years where it falls dramatically short.

I wish TWW had the old lottery threads archived, lots of good stuff in those...

8/7/2007 9:37:55 AM

Way to be terribly misleading with your thread Mr aarontrollo.

Do some more research before you jump to conclusions.

8/7/2007 10:52:05 AM

What are the requirements you have to meet to qualify for the free education? I've heard somewhere around a 3.0 gpa and in high school, with AP and honors credits, GPAs like that are a joke. It's hard to get below a 3.5 in some cases.

8/7/2007 11:15:58 AM

especially with AG/AP/IB classes

8/7/2007 11:16:23 AM

^,^^ definitely..i havent kept up with what the actual requirements are but 99.9% of the time if someone has below a 3.0 in high school they didnt apply themselves AT ALL

[Edited on August 7, 2007 at 11:31 AM. Reason : ]

8/7/2007 11:31:26 AM

i finished high school with a 4 something but there were people at my HS with GPA's of over 5

8/7/2007 11:35:49 AM

i finished highschool with a 3.2 and was almost bottom of my class My unweighted GPA was like a 2.3. And no i didnt apply myself at all

8/7/2007 12:37:12 PM

Before people say that education money has been shifted away, they should at least know what the lottery money goes towards. The school construction fund is not having money drawn away, neither are any of the programs that the lottery finances.

8/7/2007 12:47:57 PM

I have an issue with some of the allocation of school construction money anyway. It seems often they spend large chunks of the contruction budget on relatively meaningless aethetic shit instead of worrying about efficiency and space.

8/7/2007 1:26:22 PM

Currently, under the Capital construction fund, it is a 3 to 1 ratio (corporate taxes) and the lottery fund is 65% ADM and 35% Effective County Tax Rate.

So if the LEAs are wasting the money, that is their fault.

8/7/2007 1:40:22 PM

I don't see why they can't use steel buildings (like most churches and businesses are going to) for schools. Construction costs and time would drop significantly.

8/8/2007 3:15:31 AM

since when did an increase in money to education in this state or any other state actually help?

8/10/2007 8:51:47 PM

it would make sense that south carolina's lottery revenue is going down since some of the people in nc that went to buy tickets in SC can buy them here now

8/10/2007 9:58:55 PM

^^ They do use steel frames. Check out the big upgrade of a music center they're throwing onto Cary High School. Same with that big gym thing with the wacky windows they built there, that was steel framed too.

I think the problem is that the state will just drag its ass on any construction, no matter what type, and will find some way to bloat the construction costs.

8/10/2007 10:01:38 PM

My roomate's girlfriend was one of the Architects working on several of the next line of schools being built in Wake County.

she saved nearly a million bucks on one of them, out of a 24 million dollar project. not bad

Schools, like any commercial building, are expensive to build and extremely complicated to build because of all the code. And the architects do a pretty amazing job given the budgets they are working with, not to mention the construction companies who actually have to build the things on time and on budget. They get watched like HAWKS too, it's pretty funny.

8/11/2007 3:33:35 AM