The Alabama Education Lottery
Last October Alabama voters rejected a referendum for a state education lottery by a vote of 54% to 46%. The proposed education lottery was Governor Don Seigalman's solution to a shortfall of $120 million dollars in the state budget. The budget shortage was created as a result of the United States Supreme Court in Washington declaring Alabama's franchise tax unconstitutional. Without new funding, Alabama would be forced to cut funding to its dysfunctional education and prison systems. After a crusade by church leaders throughout the state, the state education lottery was ultimately defeated. The defeat of the state lottery is but the latest example confirming the church stranglehold over the state government of Alabama. The state education lottery was a good idea that would have brought badly needed funding to Alabama's beleaguered education system. From my vantage point, the state lottery was a good solution to a terrible problem. I have first-hand experience of just how bad Alabama's public school systems are. Underpaid, uninterested teachers in trailers without heat taught many of my high school classes. In the dead of winter, I struggled mostly on keeping warm rather than learning. To keep my grades up, I was forced to learn
Many other states such as Georgia are already reaping the benefits of a state lottery. Under Georgia's Hope Scholarship program, any high school senior in the state of Georgia maintaining a "B" average can attend any state university tuition free. The Georgia system rewards students for their hard work and eases the financial burden of attending college. Sometimes it seems unfair for me to be going tens of thousands of dollars into debt simply because I live five minutes from Georgia and am a citizen of Alabama. Alabama should consider instituting a similar program. Alabama currently has the lowest per-capital spending on education in the nation (Harrop D1). As of today thirty-two other states have state lotteries, and of these thirty-two states, none have lower SAT scores than Alabama. Some have suggested property tax reform as an alternative to a state lottery. While property tax reform is a better solution to the budget crisis than the state lottery, I cannot see Alabamians voting to raise their taxes which makes this an unrealistic solution. Some counties in Alabama already have their own "lottery" anyway. I am from a small town in south Alabama that borders the state of Georgia. Whenever anyone from my hometown wants a lottery ticket, they simply drive one mile across the state line and buy it. When the lottery referendum was put on last year's ballot my county voted overwhelmingly in support of the lottery. We thought it was a good idea to keep our money in Alabama's schools and not in Georgia's schools. The defeat of the state lottery came as a blow to me and others h
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Approximate Word count = 1070
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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