State Lottery Still Paying Pennies on the Dollar to Scholarships: Financial Reports

Arkansas Lottery

Financial reports show that the Arkansas Lottery still is allocating a paltry amount for college scholarships.

Since the state’s new fiscal year started last July, only 15 – 16 cents out of every dollar the Arkansas Lottery made actually went to scholarships. However, nearly 69% of the Lottery’s revenue has gone to prizes for lottery players.

For perspective, the typical state lottery budgets approximately 25% – 30% of its revenue for education and about 60% for prizes.

The Arkansas Lottery could pay millions of dollars more to scholarships every year if it simply would reduce its prize budget and raise its scholarship budget. Unfortunately, the Lottery has shown little interest in doing that.

Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue, scholarships, and prizes for Fiscal Year 2022.

Scholarship Spending

MonthGross Lottery RevenuePaid to Scholarships% Gross Revenue
July$47,591,757.56$8,338,564.1317.5%
August50,243,929.036,786,603.7513.5%
Total$97,835,686.59$15,125,167.8815.5%

Prize Spending

MonthGross Lottery RevenueTotal Prizes% Going to Prizes
July$47,591,757.56$33,228,956.6669.8%
August50,243,929.0333,998,197.5967.7%
Total$97,835,686.59$67,227,154.2568.7%

Photo Credit: Powerball and Mega Millions Lottery Billboard in Missouri by Tony Webster, on Flickr.

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News: Release: First Annual Day of Prayer for Arkansas Students

Prayer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, September 22, 2021

One week from today on September 29, 2021, will mark the first annual Day of Prayer for Arkansas Students. The Arkansas Legislature passed Act 902 this past legislative session establishing an annual Day of Prayer for Arkansas Students.

This good law by Senator Ricky Hill (R – Cabot) and Representative Cameron Cooper (R – Romance) directs the Governor to annually proclaim the last Wednesday in September of each year as “A Day of Prayer for Arkansas Students,” and it calls upon the citizens of Arkansas to pray for students, teachers, administrators, and schools.

Jerry Cox, President of Family Council, said that establishing an annual day of prayer for our students, teachers, administrators, and schools is now needed more than ever. “We are grateful to Senator Hill and Representative Cooper for sponsoring this good bill and for the legislature for passing it into law,” said Cox. “We also want to thank Governor Hutchinson for issuing a Proclamation declaring September 29 as the first annual Day of Prayer for Arkansas Students.”

Many communities are unaware of this new state law that will be observed statewide, and we want to make sure we spread the word to make this day a success. The Division of Elementary and Secondary Education is required to notify public school districts of the day of prayer. “You can let your pastor know, notify your school board, superintendent, principal, or teachers and let them know about the new law,” said Cox. “If the school has any Christian clubs such as FCA, notify the faculty sponsor or member of the group and remember to pray for students in private school and those enrolled in a home school.”

Family Council is a conservative education and research organization based in Little Rock.

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Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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Frequent Marijuana Users Under 45 Twice as Likely to Suffer Heart Attack: New Study

Marijuana

A new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal indicates that adults under age 45 who frequently use marijuana are roughly twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack as adults who do not use marijuana.

Researchers examined health data from more than 33,000 adults ages 18 – 44, of whom more than 4,600 reported using marijuana in the past 30 days.

The study noted that a history of heart attack was more frequent among recent marijuana users than among nonusers, and that a history of heart attack was associated with using marijuana more than four times per month.

The study’s authors even observed that marijuana’s association with heart attack appeared to be similar to tobacco’s, writing, “The association between recent cannabis use and MI [heart attack] was similar in magnitude to associations with MI [heart attack] observed for current tobacco smoking.”

It’s important to point out that this is certainly not the first study to link heart problems with marijuana use.

All of this underscores what we have said for years: Marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

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