How will a lottery help Mississippi education?
A state-sponsored lottery in Mississippi became a sure thing when the House reversed course and approved the game of a chance in a narrow 58-54 bipartisan vote late last month, a day after the chamber killed the same legislation.
It’s estimated the lottery will generate $40 million in its first year and up to $80 million a year soon after.
If those forecasts hold, three years might pass before any revenue is allocated toward public education.
Any revenue above $80 million will go toward the state’s education enhancement fund.
The bill says the funds can be diverted to the state’s prekindergarten program, which has gained national recognition but reaches less than 10 percent of the state’s 4-year-olds, “or other educational purposes.”
“There’s no guarantee in that,” said Rep. Debra Gibbs, D-Jackson, of the bill’s setup directing funds toward education only after the $80 million threshold is reached. “I wanted the bill to have a percentage off the top that would go to education.”
Neighboring Louisiana, for example, earmarks lottery proceeds for its K-12 school funding formula.
Gibbs, who ran on an education platform, initially voted against the bill, but ultimately voted yes, reasoning, “the bottom line is the constituents — and I’m their voice — who I represent have
wanted a lottery for a long time.”
A 2017 brief from the National Conference of State Legislatures reports education receives the majority of dedicated state lottery revenues.
And a strong contingent of the House Democratic Caucus would have liked to see the same in Mississippi.
In a statement before the final vote, the caucus said the lottery bill would have a “negligible, if any” benefit for the state’s public schools.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, was one of 54 legislators who voted against the lottery bill.
“Democratic House members, including myself, have long supported the establishment of a lottery that supports education in Mississippi,” he said. “And polling shows a large majority of Mississippians also support a lottery — but only if it benefits education.”
The lottery debate illustrates the challenges the state faces with education and infrastructure do not occur in silos.
Good infrastructure attracts businesses whose revenues finance the majority of local school systems, while access to an educated populace is the top factor businesses consider when deciding whether to grow their operations, according to a 2017 survey distributed to 1,800 business owners by Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann.
“Economic development is very important to get the dollars for education,” House Education Chairman Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, said.
Lawmakers returned to Jackson for a special session with more than 400 of the state’s bridges out of operation. The closures came after federal investigators deemed the structures unsafe for travel.
“We have schoolchildren that are staying on the bus for an hour, an hour and a half because of these bridges,” Bennett said. “Not only that, it’s a safety concern. We have people the mobile medics can not get to. Once we get out of this critical needs area, I think we can move some of that money to education.”
He also committed despite the language “of other educational purposes” to fighting for any gross revenue to go toward pre-K.
“Our state is now in a financial situation where we have to rely on a lottery to help fund a crisis. We are faced with a terrible choice: Do we invest in our children or invest in critical infrastructure improvements?” said Mississippi Association of Educators President Joyce Helmick.
“It seems as though we are always fighting a funding battle,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the regular budget or an alternative revenue stream, we have to fight tooth and nail to get education funding into the conversation. That said, this feels like a very simple way to show the educators and children of Mississippi that their leadership cares about their future.”