In a recent editorial, “Regulate and tax Internet cafes,” you said that North Carolina’s lottery was called “inaccurately” the N.C. Education Lottery.
In response, I would like to report that as of March 31 the N.C. Education Lottery has returned $1.469 billion to support education. We expect to produce $419 million this fiscal year alone for education.
Lottery proceeds have been used, as prescribed by law, to help build school facilities across the state, such as the commons area and expanded cafeteria at Mount Airy High School. The law further prescribes that lottery funds go to college scholarships, to support More At Four, the pre-kindergarten program for at-risk four-year-olds, and to pay for teachers to reduce class size in grades K-3.
In FY 2009 alone, Surry County received $1.3 million for school construction, $354,000 for college scholarships for 322 Surry County students, $856,000 for 15 teachers to reduce class size and $694,000 for 144 four-year-olds in the preschool program.
We track how the money is spent on our website at http://www.nc-educationlottery.org/ in a section called “Where The Money Goes.”
The only cause we serve by running fun and honest lottery games is to raise money for education. Many lottery players not only enjoy the games, but are glad that their money supports such a good cause. We feel our name, the N.C. Education Lottery, is an accurate and deserving way to describe what we do.
Tom Shaheen
Executive Director
N.C. Education Lottery
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