Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Alabama likes it poor

It's better to be in a small group doing the right thing than be part of a large group doing the wrong thing - even if it's for the right reasons, says The Birmingham News. First, we're told, lotteries are inefficient: only a third of the proceeds go to beneficiary programs. Well, that's still $16 billion nationwide going to public schooling and other good causes and not to for-profit riverboat casinos or even outfits on the web that may not even be legitimate.

Second, states that raise money from a lottery do so at the expense of the poor. Is that a fact? Most research shows that player demographics match the general population pretty closely (except when the jackpots are really big, when the rich pour out in droves to get even richer). Everybody likes to have fun.

Third, most players don't win. No duh. When citizens work that out, the Birmingham News tells us, lotteries try to entice players back and it "just becomes a downward spiral with no good end." Well, no good end except pre-K programs for at-risk 4-year-olds, smaller class sizes, new school construction and college scholarships for poor students.

When Alabama rejected a state lottery a few years back, maybe it did the right thing. But as parents with school-age kids in Alabama will tell you, they did it for the wrong reasons.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

North Carolina lottery gets a leg-up

Schools in North Carolina are to get an extra half-billion dollars a year in funding - and all thanks to one Republican senator's bad leg! "It's a dark day for North Carolina," Church leaders warned, and some sour-puss school district chiefs still feel it's bad public policy. One school official had the grace to welcome the extra money, though, saying the senate's decision had actually renewed his faith in the legislative process. Considering how it sneaked past the Senate - after the session had officially closed and with one anti-lottery senator on his honeymoon and the other in bed with a bad leg - faith is a weird and wonderful thing in the South.