Includes video report
By Todd Northrop
ALBANY, N.Y. — With recent media attention focused on soaring Mega Millions sales, many people are curious how the lottery proceeds are divided and spent.
WNYT in New York asked the New York Lottery, and contacted several local school districts, to follow the trail of money from players' pockets to textbooks and commissions.
Last year lottery sales in New York State totaled more than $7.8 billion, of which $2.6 billion went to education funding.
The $2.6 billion represented 12% of the total New York State spending on education.
For every $1 spent on the lottery, $.34 goes to education, $.58 is allocated to winners in the forum of prizes, and $.06 is paid to retailers for their sales commissions.
A sampling of local district education allocations includes:
- Albany $12,171,940.24
- Troy $7,324,914.37
- Schenectady $16,657,100.67
- Shenendehowa $9,977,686.19
- Bethlehem $5,473,766.79
- Niskayuna $4,617,544.85
A complete district-by-district breakdown of lottery education funding, provided by the NYS Comptroller's Office, can be viewed by clicking the link in the Related Links section below this story.
The school district spokespeople contacted by WNYT Friday claim that by the time the lottery money gets to them, it isn't segregated from other state aid so they have no way of determining, how, exactly, it's spent.
When asked how the monies are divvied up by district, the NYS Education Department issued the following statement:
"According the the School Law Handbook, which is published by the NYS School Boards Assoc and the NYS Bar Assoc., a school district's share of the lottery proceeds is computed according to an equalized formula based on each school district's taxable property wealth per pupil to support the general state aids otherwise payable to a school district. School districts receive a portion of their fall state aid payment in the form of a check directly from the lottery fund by September 1 ( 3609-a(1)(a)(2)). A portion of the lottery funds ($15 per resident pupil) is added to regular textbook aid, which is included in the check districts receive from the lottery fund. Lottery aid also includes a $10 payment for each blind and deaf student attending state-supported schools for the blind and deaf."
Thanks to Jazi76 for the tip.
Hopefully this will keep the teachers union thugs from rioting and destroying and maliciously defacing the Capitol building like they did in Wisconsin.
They just better never think of reducing the amount given to them by so much as a penny no matter what even if they have to borrow the money or there'll be trouble.
Perhaps someone can explain why, after half a century, the children students and educators remain: unmotivated, unscholarly, unnurtured, unkind, harassed, and exhibit a general hopelessness?
"For every $1 spent on the lottery, $.34 goes to education, $.58 is allocated to winners in the forum of prizes, and $.06 is paid to retailers for their sales commissions."
Where does the ogther $.02 per dollar go?
I saw a movie where the scheme was taking all the extra pennies from each transaction and diverting them to a separate bank account.
It added up to huge amounts of money in no time.
Of course government officials would never even think of doing something like that.
Unless maybe they saw the movie...
That's not a bug; it's a feature.
Ha ha "Office Space" was a great movie!
I think we need someone to oversee where the educational dollars are going, not just a pie chart that gives us a quick breakdown.
Example of educational waste.
My son and 3 of his buddies ( ALL OF THEM 11 YEARS OLD) had a contest at lunch one day,
who could squeeze juice from orange wedges the farthest ( Alpha male syndrome )
Not my proudest moment as a parent. What came next , boggles my mind.
The boys had to have an intervention, they had to discuss therir feelings and describe why they felt the need to be so disruptive and destructive.
Phone calls were made to all the parents, we had to go to the school, miss work, sign papers stating we would take corrective actions.
This bull sh** when on for a week, with the school psycologist...Really do 11 year olds need that?
My solution would have went something like this.
" HEY ! You 4 a**holes get to clean the lunchroon for a week ! No recess and a paragraph or 2 on why we don't screw around with food at lunch time.
Do it again and will send a letter home.!
I would have saved the tax payers 80 thousand dollars, plus lifetime benefits.
The teachers spoil the kids so so much its crazy. I agree with you guys. When kids do silly things, no need for counselling or unendless parents teachers meetings, just punish the kids. Punish them and let them know a repeat offence is going to be punished even more severely.
Most kids have learnt to push the boundaries because they have realized parents are just yakking machines. All they do is yak then they give pocket money.
$2.6B to education and the schools suck.. Thanks to me mostly for losing $$$ LOL
Dittoes.
NY definitely got the money all the jackpots they win!!
Yeah "Office Space", that was it! That was a great movie.
Milton Waddams: [talking on the phone] And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were married, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...
Never take a mans stapler.
Somebody has to run the lottery. I think the figure (when you take the rounding out) is around 1.6 cents of each dollar goes to running the lottery. Very efficient, I think. Not a lot of fat there, especially for a lottery as big as New York's.