Florida Lottery Secretary Cynthia O’Connell announced today (4/20/15) that her agency is reaching a significant milestone in its history.
“The Florida Lottery will surpass $28 billion in total funding for education over the past 27-years,” she told reporters during a media event at the Lottery’s Tallahassee headquarters.
All this money, O’Connell says, goes to enhance the budgets of K through 12 school districts, as well as the state’s institutions of higher learning, along with college and university students.
“To date, K-12 programs across Florida have received $15.5 billion in Lottery funding,” she said. “Florida’s colleges and universities have received $7.2 billion. More than 4.6 billion Lottery dollars have been awarded to students statewide in the form of Bright Futures Scholarships.”
Of course, the history of the Florida Lottery has had its share of controversy and contention over the years. From time to time, it’s been caught in the crossfire of those advocating expansion of gaming in the state and those for whom any kind of gambling – including the Lottery – is an evil to be banned by statute. There’s been the frequent criticism that the Lottery pulls cash out of the lowest-income neighborhoods and redistributes it to affluent school districts and well-off students who really don’t need the help of Bright Futures Scholarships. Democratic State Representative Alan Williams (D-Tallahassee) still thinks enough students of modest means receive the scholarships to make the program worthwhile.
“The greatest equalizer in any society is education,” he said following the news conference. “And if we create a pathway to that and the Lottery helps pay for that pathway, then we’re doing a better job and we’re giving more children the opportunity for a better life where they may not have started out at.”
And then there’s the oldest criticism of all….that the money generated by the Lottery was supposed to be on top of the other money provided by the state to local school districts, instead of a substitute for.
“It’s my hope that future legislatures will say the money from the Lottery should be the ‘cherry on top’,” Williams said. “We should do more to fund those other programs to make sure that no child is left behind and that every child has an opportunity.”
Twenty-seven years is a long time in the state lottery business. Florida’s lottery is now what’s known in the industry as “mature”, meaning it’s getting harder and harder to generate lots of new interest, excitement and sales when it’s become such a predictable part of the landscape. Still, the fact the Florida Lottery is crossing the twenty-eight billion dollar threshold is significant. Especially for the schools and students who continue to benefit from that money.
