Lotteries Vs Education

State lotteries generate billions of dollars a year, but where exactly does all this money go? Many claim that the income generated is beneficial and aids in funding education, programs for senior citizens, and other federal programs. Others claim that the lottery is just away for the government to make more money and has no impact on the funding of federal programs. Charles J. Spindler, author of Lottery and Education: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, explains that the impact of state lotteries on federal programs varies by state. Dr. Michael Heberling, President of Baker College Center for Graduate studies in Flint, Michigan, presents a case from the state of Michigan. He argues that the state lottery does not help fund education and federal programs. Blake Hart and Jonathan Sofley present another case from the state of Georgia, where state lottery has improved education. Both of these articles prove Charles J. Spindler’s point that impact of lotteries vary state to state. In State Lotteries vs. Truth-in-Advertising, the article written by Dr. Michael Heberling we learn how the lottery does not help fund education in the state of Michigan. Instead the state of Michigan uses the lottery as a way to get rich easy. When the citizens of the state of Michigan were voting to legalize the lottery the government presented it as “vehicle to raise state …show more content…
In The Georgia Lottery and State Appropriations for Education: Substitution or Additional Funding, by Thomas P. Lauth and Mark D. Robbins, they present results of a survey ran in 1999. Out of 50 states 22 states reported that lottery proceed go to funds that help education, conservation and outdoor recreation, economic development and senior citizens. Ten others states reported that their funds went into a general fund, all though it was not supporting education with these funds they did not have to raise