Ask 17 News: A viewer contacted 17 News to ask why local schools are struggling financially despite all the money they receive from the California Lottery?
For the past 10 years the lottery has generated over a billion dollars in revenue a year for california schools...and since its beginning in 1985, $22 billion has been given to california public education, however, that money totals less than 2-precent of the total revenue for public schools.
The state says the California lottery was created in 1985 to generate 'supplemental' revenue for schools and was never intended to be a primary source of money for school districts.
34 cents out of every dollar goes to schools, and even though one billion sounds like a lot, when it gets spread across all of California, it doesn't go very far. In 2007-2008 the money averaged out to about $130 per student. Compare that to almost $10,000 per pupil from the California general fund. Still local school officials say that every cent helps in these challenging economic times.
"Currently the lottery generates about 1.5 percent of our budget, for the Bakersfield city school district, as I understand it. That can vary for other districts, slightly, but not very much," said Bakersfield City School District spokesman Steve Gabbitas. "In our district, we primarily use that money for teachers' salaries in order to reduce class size."
Other than teachers' salaries, there is a small portion that is mandated by law to go toward classroom supplies. The California Lottery also sponsors educational events including state spelling bees.
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