A Gamble for Education

Accounts of the financial frenzy that seized New York during its $41-million lottery payoff last week all seemed to end with some variation on the same uplifting message: “One thing is for sure, the big winner will be the New York schools.” But that is not for sure at all, and therein lies a lesson for California.

Forty-five per cent of the ticket sales from New York’s Lotto game are supposed to benefit education. But this does not mean that New York schools will be a big winner. In fact, state officials have confirmed in the past that when an unexpected bonanza of lottery money came in, other funds already earmarked for the schools were reduced by a like amount. The money from Lotto, as they call it in New York, is folded into the state’s basic allocation for education--not added onto it.

The Republican chairman of the New York state Senate Education Committee was quite blunt about it: “My inclination is to say it is a fraud, and the public is not wrong if it is disillusioned.”

This is precisely the sort of situation that California officials are seeking to avoid. Proposition 37, the lottery initiative approved by voters last November, was sold on the rationale that it would bring in new money for schools. But the measure is quite vague in directing how the education funds are to be used, except that they are to augment present financing--not replace it. The law directs that the funds be distributed on a per-student basis for use in kindergarten through the universities for instructional purposes, and not for construction or other indirect costs.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig has worked to write implementing legislation guaranteeing that the lottery money will supplement existing funds, not just supplant them. That is no simple matter, for there will be all sorts of backdoor efforts to reduce the education budget accordingly. Bills before the Legislature to achieve Honig’s goal are sponsored by Sen. Ralph C. Dills (D-Gardena) and Assemblywoman Teresa P. Hughes (D-Los Angeles).

Without some very strong and precise legislative language, the idea of lottery money being a special bonus for schools will evaporate like the instant-riches dreams of most ticket-buyers. Let’s remember this when the California lottery prizes soar into the multimillions and lottery promoters boast about California schools being sure winners.