Students Win with the Lottery
Tennessee has a serious budget problem, and the students' education is suffering more than any other group. Education has taken major financial cuts. Some school systems in the state of Tennessee had to delay their academic school year because there was no money in the budget to run the school. College aged students were not able to attend school because there was no funds for scholarships. I thought that I had to sit out this semester because there was no money for the scholarship program. I had to wait till after the budget crisis and government shut down were over before I knew if I would be able to attend. Tennessee needs a lottery to ensure that the schools will be funded.
The proposed lottery will be modeled after Georgia's lottery. "Georgia's lottery is unique in that revenues are earmarked for three education programs- HOPE College Scholarships, universal pre-kindergarten, and education infrastructure" (Rubenstein & Scafidi, Who Pays and Who Benefits?) Georgia has a scholarship program which provides funding for all public schools, including state colleges and universities.
Tennessee Lottery
Kirksey Old Main building on the campus of Middle ...
English: Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Ten...The scholarship program is called HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally).This program is primary for college scholarships and public pre-kindergarten. Any left over revenue from the lottery goes for kindergarten through twelfth grade spending. Tennessee would benefit greatly from a similar program, revenue from a lottery could go to under-paid teachers, out-dated books and dilapidated facilities.
Tennessee actually plans to use the revenues to support Kindergarten through Twelfth grade. Teachers now have to spend their own money to fund school classrooms decorations and supplies. How can teachers be expected to support a classroom full of children and be able to keep a household. When my mother was a teacher she bought supplies for her classroom, but she was always...
You still have to look at where the money is coming from
by spending lottery money on education, you are in effect creating a volentary tax ( yes, one or two people will make money on it, but the majority will not).You must then look at the target audience for lottery tickets; the poor.It has been shown over and over again that the financially secure will genuinly play the lottery for fun, but the poor, who really need the scholarship money in the first place, are much more likley to spend large amounts on, and even become addicted to these forms of gambling.So its essentially a tax on the poor, meaning although the schools will run, they wil struggle for food and clothes.Also, if it is somthing that everyones children need and will benifit from, should it be a volentary tax?
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