The State - News from Aug. 22, 1985

A teacher who says the five-month delay in the California Lottery has deprived education of more than $150 million has asked a state appeal court in Sacramento to order a start-up date to be set. Nancy Avoy, 46, a substitute English teacher in Campbell, had argued in a Superior Court suit that since one-third of the estimated $1 billion in annual lottery revenue will go to education, public schools are missing out on more than $1 million daily. However, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Roy Wonder ruled Aug. 5 that the state is acting properly in its organization of a lottery, even though one portion of the voter-approved initiative ordered the opening of the games by March 22. Lottery director Mark Michalko said the appeal is “not going to make a whole lot of difference,” because “by the time an appellate court issues a decision, tickets will be on sale.”