Ohio schools not getting more funding this year despite soaring lottery jackpots
CLEVELAND (WJW) — Tuesday’s Mega Millions Lottery jackpot soared to over $1.1 billion, a figure that tends to drive up sales even among people who do not typically participate. Meanwhile, the Powerball jackpot sits at a not-too-shabby $865 million.
“It is after all a lottery, it is the luck of the draw,” said Ohio Lottery Spokesperson Danielle Frizzi-Babb.
The Ohio Lottery posts on it website: “One hundred percent of Ohio Lottery profits helps support K-12, vocational and special education programs in Ohio. Since 1974, the Ohio Lottery has provided more than $31 billion to Ohio’s education programs.”
But while the lottery generates the proceeds from the sale of its tickets, it does not determine how the money is disbursed.
“We put the money in the fund and that’s where our duty with it ends, and the rest is up to the legislature and department of education,” said Babb.
She explained that last year, the Ohio Lottery contributed $1.46 billion to the Ohio Lottery Profits Education Fund
For the current fiscal year, the state general assembly budgeted $17.1 billion to be divided among schools across the state.
Only $1.5 billion of that, or roughly 12% is from the Ohio lottery.
The Ohio Department of Education confirms to Fox 8 News that the state’s budgeted amount for schools does not change even when the lottery jackpots soar.
“The budget for education is set for each year by the Ohio General Assembly, and fluctuations in profits from the lottery don’t change those figures. If lottery profits are higher than expected, it gives the General Assembly more funds to appropriate in future budgets.” we were told in a department of education email.
Ryan Pendleton is a former treasurer for Barberton and Akron Public Schools.
He is currently the executive director of the North Coast Shared Service Alliance, which coordinates financial and operations support for Northeast Ohio school districts.
He confirms that schools will not immediately see an increase in state revenue regardless of how high the lottery jackpots get.
Determining exactly how much money each school district gets from lottery proceeds is also not easy to do
Although many local schools are currently on spring break, Fox 8 News was able to reach several school district treasurers who had no idea how much of their state funding came from lottery proceeds.
“The general revenue funds, lottery tangible reimbursement, property tax reimbursement, any federal stimulus funds, those all flow into one fund that pays out to our 609-plus school districts in Ohio, so there’s no specific way to track down the lottery proceeds directly impacting a school district,” said Pendleton.
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Of the recent massive jackpots, there are more than 40 states that participate, so Ohio only keeps the proceeds made from tickets sold in the state.
Looking at the Mega Millions drawing specifically, Frizzi-Babb tells Fox 8 the Ohio Lottery had $4.7 million in sales from the last drawing on Friday. Ticket sales for Tuesday’s drawing were estimated at $6.7 million in Ohio alone.
Frizzi-Babb however says the state does not get all of that money.
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