Category: Arkansas Lottery

College Graduation Rate Remains Flat Despite State Lottery

One of the selling points of the Arkansas Lottery was that it would send more students to college and bring more college graduates into Arkansas’ workforce. However, as the Lottery celebrates its fifth anniversary, college graduation statistics seem to show the Arkansas Lottery isn’t living up to its promises.

According to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education, from 2002 to 2007 Arkansas’ graduation rate rose roughly 5%. In 2002, 15% of college students in Arkansas graduated in 4 years, and 35% graduated in 6 years. By 2007, 20.7% of students graduated in 4 years, and 40% graduated in 6 years.

Since 2007, however, the graduation rates have remained fairly flat. By 2010 only 19.7% of Arkansas college students graduated in 4 years, and 38.7% graduated in 6.

(more…)

READ MORE

Lottery Commissioners Express Reservations About Review

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, members of the Arkansas Legislature have approved bringing an outside group in to review the Arkansas Lottery, but lottery officials aren’t particularly thrilled about the idea.

Legislators want Camelot Global Services of Philadelphia to conduct a review of the Arkansas Lottery–presumably to look for inefficiencies and make recommendations on ways to improve the Arkansas Lottery. All told, the review is slated to cost about $169,500, and legislators want the Arkansas Lottery Commission to foot half the bill. According to the newspaper, however, at least 4 members of the Arkansas Lottery Commission have expressed reservations over paying for that.

Now, keep in mind that this is the same Lottery Commission that has approved expenditure after expenditure in the face of declining scholarship proceeds. This summer alone, the Arkansas Lottery: (more…)

READ MORE

Louisiana Lottery Makes Less Money, Pays Out More Than Arkansas

For 5 years, now, we have written about what an exercise in futility the Arkansas Lottery has turned out to be.

It pulls hundreds of millions of dollars out of Arkansas’ economy, hurts families, and pays back far too little money in scholarship funding.

Lottery officials have reduced the lottery’s budget for scholarships to record-lows for Fiscal Year 2015, citing lagging ticket sales as the reason. If that’s the case, though, then how is it Louisiana’s state lottery has consistently paid out more in education funding than Arkansas despite taking in less money in lottery ticket sales?

Here are the Numbers.

(more…)

READ MORE