How much funding do schools get from the lottery?

Published 7:25 pm Saturday, January 12, 2019

From the staff

 

Texan voters approved an amendment to the Texas Constitution authorizing lottery sales in Texas, assuming most funds would go to education.  On May 29, 1992, the Texas Lottery was officially launched and by the end of the first week, 102.4 million tickets were sold, signaling that Texans were fired up about potentially winning money and helping fund schools-or so they thought, according to Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Since 1992, the Texas Lottery has generated more than $28 billion in revenue for good causes in the state of Texas, including education, veterans’ services, and other important state programs. Through strict adherence to our vision, mission and core values, the Texas Lottery is dedicated to ensuring that these benefits continue, according to the Texas Lottery official website.

Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $22 billion to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas. In FY 2018, for the eighth consecutive year, the Texas Lottery transferred $1.432 billion to the Foundation School Fund.

In FY 2017, Texas Lottery set a new  $5.077 Billion sales record and nets $1.313 billion for Texas public schools and $16.2 million for Texas veterans.

Prior to 1997, the proceeds were allocated to the General Revenue Fund and were contributed for the benefit of all state programs.

In 2009, legislation was passed directing the Texas Lottery to offer a scratch ticket game benefiting the Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veterans’ Assistance (FVA). Since that time, the Texas Lottery has contributed more than $103 million for veterans programs. The FVA makes grants available to eligible charitable organizations, local government agencies, and Veterans Service Organizations that provide direct services to Texas veterans and their families. More than 90 percent of the revenue contributed to the fund is derived from the sales of the Texas Lottery veterans’ games. The first game was introduced in FY 2010 and since that time, additional games have been launched with the proceeds supporting the fund. In FY 2018, $18.1 million was transferred to the Texas Veterans Commission.

As authorized by the Texas Legislature, other Texas Lottery funds, such as unclaimed prizes, contribute to other causes and programs.

The Foundation School Program (FSP) is the primary means of distributing state aid to Texas public schools. FSP entitlement for Texas public schools is funded through a combination of state aid and local property tax revenue and totals approximately $90.0 billion for the 2016–17 biennium.

FSP is funded jointly through a combination of local property tax revenue and state funds that make up a total revenue entitlement for school districts and charter schools.