Comments on: State Board Set To Request More Money For Florida Schools

By: mike

mike — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 16:39:14 +0000

Florida voters approved the lottery in 1986 to fund education enhancement. The law stipulated that 50% go to prizes, 38% go to education, and the remaining 12% used for lottery administration and promotion. Within a few years, the legislature began to subvert the original intent. In the state budget, they began to use lottery money to pay for education operating costs and salaries while shifting those tax dollars to pet projects and non-educational spending.

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 16:04:47 +0000

Gov. Scott and the legislature have reduced taxes in the state on big businesses.
The question we have always asked is, ‘When Taxes are CUT by the State, what services are YOU Willing to Give UP?’
Be prepared for an increase in OUR Property Taxes locally because the state does not have enough funds for OUR schools.

JASON……You are On Target with the Lotto Funds.
Intended to be used for Extra things the schools could not afford from their budget.
When the law makers saw how much was being raised through the Lotto they began to cut the funding to the districts.
State also did away with Capitol Improvement funding which built new schools and repaired existing schools.

By: js

js — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 13:35:00 +0000

Not to mention….
Dept. of Edu employs over 320000 people
There are approx. 20mil people living in florida.
Do the math, unreal.What a sham

By: js

js — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 13:31:05 +0000

the bonus program sounds good, depending on how the winner of the bonus is chosen. If it’s run by the state, and there is a bonus involved, it’s most likely going to be fishy anyway. WAY too much fat that needs to be cut in the EDU system.
Too much admin, centralized. Just spend 2 minutes of the FL dept. of edu website.
It’s worse than some huge corp. conglomeration. It’s embarrassing to see the waste of money. (And yes, I know you can include every office of the state when talking about waste, this is about edu.)

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 07:14:35 +0000

From each dollar collected by the Florida Lottery 65% is returned to player price fund. The remaining 35% is divided as follows:
* 26.8% to education;
* 5.5% paid to retailers as commission for selling tickets and for redeeming winning tickets;
* 1.4% goes to vendors; and the final
* 1.3% goes to operating expenses.

In the last fiscal year – the Florida Lottery deposited more than $1,5 Billion dollars into the Education Trust Fund. The Florida Education budget for the same year was $16, 965,233,181. ($16.965 Billion)

The current fiscal year budget for the Department of Education is $17,362,882,131. Yes that is right – $17.362 Billion dollars for educational purposes – both operational and capital outlay.

Im pretty sure that the aforementioned budget dollars do not include locally collected and allocated funds. However, each district does receive funds from FL DOE.

The lottery was never initiated as a replacement for educational dollars – merely an enhancement to the budget. Lots of kids who previously would not have qualified financially for college, have been able to attend a college via the Bright Futures Scholarships.

By: mike

mike — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 05:54:19 +0000

u mean the lottery money is not going to the schools!?! gasp!?! what a surprise!!