School funding from the Virginia Lottery a drop in the bucket for school divisions
LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) — As funding troubles put some schools in our region on the chopping block, some may wonder why lottery funds aren't coming to the rescue.
After all, since the year 2000, all lottery profits have gone to education by law. The big jackpots bring in big money for the Virginia lottery, with dreamers hoping to cash in on prizes like April's $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot.
"We calculated through the 40 odd drawings that led up to that that sales of Powerball tickets in Virginia, just Powerball tickets, just in Virginia, come to $24.2 million in profits just by that Powerball jackpot run, and all that money by law goes to schools," said Virginia Lottery Spokesperson John Hagerty.
Though the big jackpots grab the headlines, lottery spokesperson Hagerty says the scratch-off tickets are actually the bigger contributor to the totals.
For the last fiscal year, the lottery sent $867.4 million in profits to the state. That's more than double the total from 20 years earlier, in 2003, when the profit was $375.2 million.
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$867 million would be a game changer for any of us, but it's a small percentage of the money schools need to educate your kids.
We asked Hagerty why schools aren't swimming in money.
"We get that question too," Hagerty said. "People do see schools closing school systems in need of funds, and they do ask about the lottery money. And it's important to remember that lottery funding, while it's a very important piece of the overall funding in Virginia, it's just a piece. It's about 10% of what Virginia spends on K through 12 education."
Lynchburg City Schools Deputy Superintendent Dr. Reid Wodicka explains further what the divisions see coming in from the lottery.
"The lottery money really plays an important role in school division revenues throughout Virginia, but a very small role in terms of the available, funds for, schools like Lynchburg City Schools, you know, a little bit less than about 7% of our budget is addressed through lottery type funds.
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For fiscal year 2023:
- Lynchburg City Schools got just over $8.6 million ($8,646,370) in lottery funds.
- Danville Public Schools received more than $8 million. ($8,142,253)
- Campbell County received more than $6.5 million. (6,563,365)
Various formulas determine how much each division gets, as well as where most of it has to be spent. "Most of the lines are very targeted in terms of our use of the funds," said Wodicka. He confirms LCS cannot use lottery funds to keep schools open.
That's not to say the lottery funds aren't welcome. They go toward important program areas to help provide students with the quality education they deserve.
"There's a variety of different programs that lottery funds are targeted towards. K-3 class size reduction, there are programs like the SOL algebra readiness program, some school breakfast kinds of programs, to make sure that we are providing the services that we need to provide to our students," said Wodicka.
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The lottery money funds what the state refers to as incentive programs, above the mandatory Standards of Quality programs.
School divisions have to meet all the SOQ funding requirements before they can even apply for lottery money.
The dollar amount a division gets is based on specific formulas for each lottery-funded program. Some may require a local match.
Click here to see how much lottery money your school division received last fiscal year.