A Failed Experiment: How Lottery Has Not Helped Fund NC Schools

During the debate around the creation of the North Carolina Education Lottery in 2005, critics from across the political spectrum predicted that the state would eventually back off of its promises that lottery funds would be used to enhance rather than replace existing education funds. The reality of what has happened in the years since is worse than what critics predicted: North Carolina spent less on K‐12 education in the 2010‐11 school year than it did in the last school year before the lottery came into existence, even without accounting for inflation or increases in the student population.