Posted on by Californiacontrarian

An Education Dichotomy


There was an interesting dichotomy in today’s morning paper. On the front page one of the headlines read, “Auditor: Lottery Didn’t Pay Schools Millions.”

On the first page of the Local section, the headline read: “Learning Centers Might Close.”

First a little about the nuts and bolts of each of these articles.

The California State Lottery was created in 1984 via a ballot measure that required 34% of the lottery sales revenue to go to schools, and capped administrative expenses at 16%. This sounds pretty straight forward although it is unclear where the other 50% goes. But then in 2010 the Legislature (predominately Democrats, with a Democratic Governor) voted you allow “a smaller percentage to go to education as long as lottery managers used ‘best practices’.” . . . whatever that means! To be clear, apparently the California Legislature thought it was okay in 2010 for them to change the parameters of the Lottery Act that the people approved back in 1984! On 2/25/20 state officials released an audit alleging that the management of the California Lottery short-changed schools by millions of dollars (is “short-changed” actually just another more polite way of saying “stole, cheated, or swindled?”). The auditor initially stated that the deficit was $69 million. That amount was then reduced to $36 million. This sounds like a convenient plea bargain sort of arrangement . . . from $69 million to $36 million does not sound like just a misplaced decimal point! More important into whose pockets did these millions of dollars go? This type of skullduggery is a perfect example of why I vote “No” on all the ballot propositions. 

And in an unrelated piece of lottery related chicanery there is an investigation into the lottery’s gift  of 30,000 Scratchers tickets, worth $212,500, to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” These Scratchers were then handed out to the studio audience!

As I recall the Lottery Act of 1984 was supposed to benefit California schools not audience members of a TV show . . . Hmmmm!

As far as the article in the Local section, the Sweetwater Union High School District School Board proposed cuts that would save the district $20 million in 2021 budget. Why so much? . . . err, the district currently has a $30 million budget shortfall! How does a school district manage to have a $30 million budget shortfall? Three potential reasons: increasing pension costs, increasing number of administrators with increasing salaries, decreased funding from the state, or . . . Pay close attention here . . . Mismanagement, gross mismanagement by the school board. Notice I did not accuse anyone of a crime. The last I checked, stupidity is not a crime! Also notice that I did not mention teacher’s salaries.

One wonders if some of the “misplaced” $36 million of lottery (for schools) money could actually be used here to help schools in the Sweetwater School District!

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