A state budget appropriation measure passed last months serves as a reminder that taxpayers in Arkansas are still heavily subsidizing the Arkansas Lottery’s college scholarship fund.
When voters passed the constitutional amendment legalizing the state-run lottery in 2008, Arkansans were promised that lottery ticket sales would generate $100 million per year for college scholarships.
Since then, the Arkansas Lottery has struggled to live up to those promises, and the Arkansas Legislature has continued to budget millions of dollars in taxpayer funding to supplement lottery scholarships each year.
In April the legislature appropriated $25 million for the Academic Challenge Scholarship — the scholarship that the lottery funds — for the state’s upcoming 2023-2024 budget cycle.
Even though the Arkansas Lottery makes hundreds of millions of dollars every year, relatively little money goes to students — and regular taxpayers still end up footing part of the bill for the scholarships.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
On March 28, 2023, the FBI released a statement indicating an arrest had been made in the case — although the FBI failed to clearly name Wisconsin Family Action as the victim.
The FBI’s press release said,
Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, 29, is charged with one count of attempting to cause damage by means of fire or an explosive. . . .
on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 8, 2022, at approximately 6:06 a.m., law enforcement responded to an active fire at an office building located in Madison, Wisconsin. Once inside the building, police observed a mason jar under a broken window; the jar was broken, and the lid and screw top were burned black. The police also saw a purple disposable lighter near the mason jar. On the opposite wall from the window, the police saw another mason jar with the lid on and a blue cloth tucked into the top; the cloth was singed. The jar was about half full of a clear fluid that smelled like an accelerant. Outside of the building, someone spray painted on one wall, “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either” and, on another wall, a large “A” with a circle around it and the number “1312.” During the investigation, law enforcement collected DNA from the scene of the attack.
In March 2023, law enforcement identified Roychowdhury as a possible suspect.
The FBI notes an indictment is purely an allegation, and Roychowdhury is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
In a statement last week, Wisconsin Family Council wrote,
Today marks the 1 year anniversary of the firebombing of the Madison offices of Wisconsin Family Council and Wisconsin Family Action. 2 Molotov cocktails were thrown, and then because the explosives didn’t do as much damage as desired, the perpetrators started a fire in the office of Julaine Appling, president of the organizations. In addition to the attack, the leftist-anarchists left a threatening message: “If abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either.”
It’s been quite a year. We were the first to be attacked after a leaked draft surfaced of the US Supreme Court’s opinion in the case that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, hundreds of pro-life organizations have been attacked. It took ten months but finally there has been an arrest in our case; we pray justice will happen for all pro-life organizations that have been vandalized.
Above: Graffiti left on the side of Wisconsin Family Action’s office building in the 2022 attack.
