Dive Brief:
- "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver has taken a look at education money associated with state lotteries.
- In his segment, Oliver zeros in on North Carolina, which started a lottery 10 years ago with the promise that it would add $500 M a year to education. In reality, Oliver explains, the state actually spends less on education than it did when it started the initiative.
- In 2007 CBS News launched an investigation, finding that of the 24 states with lottery education funds, 21 had either seen decreased or flat spending on education.
Dive Insight:
While Oliver focused on North Carolina, the state is not alone with troublesome lottery stats. In Georgia, 35% of lottery funds are meant to be allocated for education, but that hasn't happened since 1997. In July, the Georgia Lottery Corp. announced it was transferring $945 million to the state's education fund, which is actually only 23.5% of the lottery's total $4.02 billion revenue.
A few weeks ago, an audit by the Legislative Audit Council in South Carolina found that the state's Department of Education failed to properly — and legally — divvy up $30 million in lottery funds. The audit found that only 7% of the revenue was being distributed to K-12 education.