Meanwhile, the state’s payment to TRS this year is just under $5 billion.

For the current budget year, net lottery proceeds after payouts and expenses are projected to be $745 million. Pension contributions to the Teachers’ Retirement System are paid from the Common School Fund. Instead, those revenues are more than eaten up by annual contributions to teachers’ pensions. Lottery money never really makes it to the classroom. Instead, lottery money simply frees up revenue that would have gone to education and allows lawmakers to spend it on other things. As a result, lawmakers today can claim most lottery revenues are technically “funding education.” The lottery itself pushes that narrative: “Twenty-five cents of every dollar spent on the lottery goes to fund public education, infrastructure projects, and other special causes.”Ī closer look shows that is a disingenuous claim.Īs far back as 1991, the Southern Illinoisan reported that saying lottery proceeds all go to the Common School Fund is “both accurate and meaningless.” More recently, WBEZ referred to the use of lottery proceeds by the state as a “shell game.” The main reason is lottery profits do not typically represent a net increase in state spending on education. Jim Thompson signed legislation ensuring all lottery proceeds were deposited directly into the Common School Fund, the portion of the state budget that funds education. That promise was soon broken when the lottery started in 1974 and profits were deposited into the state’s general revenue fund, which pays for far more than just schools.īut in 1985, former Gov. When lawmakers were debating the Illinois Lottery in 1973, some of the public opposition was overcome by lawmakers promising “the state share would be used entirely for public schools,” according to The Associated Press at the time. In Illinois, popular lottery scratch-off tickets should come with the feel-good side benefit of helping public school students, right? Wrong: Illinois’ pension crisis guarantees lottery money never makes it to classrooms. But in reality, students never see the money. Lawmakers sold the idea of a lottery with the promise the money would go toward education.

Think those Illinois Lottery tickets help schoolkids? Think again

Lottery illinois official site