One of the biggest selling points proponents of the lottery in North Carolina used was the desperate needs of the education system in the state. In fact, the official name of the game is the North Carolina Lottery for Education. So a rational person would be led to believe that proceeds from the lottery are being spent on education needs.
I have two words for you: Astro Turf.
According to the Asheville Citizen Times, Haywood County schools have "invested" $1.4 million of lottery proceeds in fake grass to play football on.
Keep in mind that counties in WNC already get short changed in the lottery allocation formula. This Civitas map says it all. (The legislature did make a one time gift to western counties in the 2008 budget.)
Is astro turf education? Should Haywood county be more worried about the 24.5% of students that don’t graduate from their high schools than astro turf?
Let me use the language of the Left in this case: How many classrooms could you build with that $1.4 million? How many children could be educated with this money?
The proceeds from the lottery were are to be used for education. Astro Turf for extra-curricular activities is not education. But then again, neither is free childcare.
As opposed to Mecklenburg County, where the money ostensibly goes to pay down CMS debt service, but basically gets dumped in the same general fund as the rest, so who knows it actually gets spent.