Georgia Lottery players fund $1.2 billion extra for state’s education

Georgia’s schools are getting an extra $1.2 billion in funding from lottery players–the largest annual incentive in the lottery’s history, Gov. Brian Kemp announced.

“Over the years, the Georgia Lottery has afforded countless educational opportunities for families, providing our children with strong early learning foundations and keeping our best and brightest high school students in state through scholarship funding,” Kemp said.

Under the Georgia Lottery Act for Education, net proceeds from the Georgia Lottery are used to support educational programs in the state. The Georgia Lottery Corporation, which manages the lottery, has transferred more than $20 billion to the State Treasury’s Lottery for Education Account since its inception in 1993.

The lottery even has a scholarship program called Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally Scholarship Program (HOPE), which helps more than 1.8 million students. Its grant program helps eligible students pursue associates and bachelor’s degrees, technical certificates and GEDs. Students enrolled in technical courses for jobs that promote the state’s economic growth like early-childhood education, health science, practical nursing and welding, can receive career grants. Roughly $830 million was appropriated the state for in Fiscal Year 2019.

The lotto helped fund access to statewide pre-kindergarten for 1.6 million 4-year-olds– more than $360 million was appropriated for pre-kindergarten in Fiscal Year 2019.

No data shows how many people play the lottery games, but according to the Georgia Lottery Corporation, roughly 8,600 retailers statewide sell 100 scratcher games and 12 computerized games.

“Our success is a team effort that benefits all Georgians,” Georgia Lottery President and CEO Gretchen Corbin said in the news release.

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