Cox: Raise lottery ticket price to boost school funding

By Paul Donsky

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

State schools superintendent Kathy Cox says hiking the price of lottery tickets could help boost education funding in Georgia.

Cox floated the idea on Thursday during a state Board of Education meeting, saying a 50-cent surcharge per ticket could bring in $350 million a year and help address Georgia’s massive education funding gap.

State education funding has fallen by nearly $1 billion this year alone, according to a spokesman for Cox. School systems are scrambling to overcome funding gaps of their own through staff cuts and other measures.

The state constitution allows lottery proceeds to flow to schools for technology and construction. But Cox's idea could face long odds.

For one, it would require approval of the state lottery board. Lottery officials declined to comment on Friday.

And the move could backfire if enough players balk at paying higher ticket prices, said David Gale, executive director of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.

The Georgia Lottery operates a number of different games, with ticket prices ranging from 50 cents to $20. But Georgia cannot raise the price of popular multi-state games like Mega Millions.

Matt Cardoza, an education department spokesman, said Cox is “just trying to throw out ideas.”

“Things are really bad, and [she’s] trying to find different ways that K-12 education can have another funding source so we don’t have to resort to more teacher furloughs or 4-day school weeks,” Cardoza said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article