No Jackpot for West Contra Costa Unified School District

EL CERRITO, CA — As a new school year begins this month, the state’s financially troubled school districts will be counting on millions of dollars from the pockets of gamblers hoping to hit it big in the California Lottery.

Educators themselves may not pony up a dollar for their dream, but they’ve learned to love those who do. The ubiquitous lottery signs adorn more than 22,000 businesses from gas stations to donut shops and liquor stores, beckoning customers to take a chance on becoming rich while helping school kids in the process, or so goes the Lottery’s marketing campaign.

Since the state lottery began operating 33 years ago Californians have anted up more than $33 billion in funding for education by picking ‘lucky’ numbers or trying to scratch their way to a fortune. But this extra revenue is merely pocket change for many districts.

During the 2016-17 school year $1.54 billion in lottery revenue was distributed to more than 1,200 local school districts, charter schools, community colleges, the California State University chancellor’s office, the University of California, California Youth Authority, Hastings College of Law and the California Maritime Academy.

Of this West Contra Costa Unified School District received$5,461,979.08 and so far this fiscal year the district banked another $4,660,370.93. Since the first lottery checks were written in 1985 the district has received a total of $138,561,903.56.

How districts spend the money is pretty much up to them, although a few strings were attached by Proposition 37 approved by voters in 1984 establishing the lottery. Lottery proceeds can’t be used for non-instructional purposes such real estate purchases or school construction but can be spent on teacher salaries and benefits.

Additional spending restrictions were imposed in 2000 when voters approved the Cardenas Textbook Act, commonly known as Proposition 20, requiring a portion of the lottery receipts to be spent solely for purchasing instructional materials and establishing a formula for calculating what that amount would be each year.

State law defines instructional materials as those “designed for use by pupils and their teachers as a learning resource and help pupils to acquire facts, skills, or opinions or to develop cognitive processes” and may include, among other things, “textbooks, technology-based materials, other educational materials, and tests.”

No question gamblers are providing extra cash for schools, and every little bit counts in an era of tight budgets, teacher salary increases and burgeoning retirement costs. But by the time lottery money trickles down to individual districts it isn’t necessarily a jackpot for students. State Department of Education statistics show school districts spend more than half of their total lottery distributions on salaries and benefits.

West Contra Costa expenses

Although lottery distributions may appear substantial, they cover just a fraction of what it costs to keep schools open. Last year West Contra Costa Unified School District spent $127,237,390 on salaries for administrators and teachers, $55,673,974 for other district employees, $75,922,126 in combined benefits for all employees, $11,276,140 on books and other supplies and $59,618,408 for district operating costs.

However, the chronic problem plaguing school districts during budget season and throughout the school year is simply that there’s no way to know precisely how much lottery money they’ll ultimately receive because payouts are based upon both lottery sales and a district’s average daily student attendance. For example, the 2016 fiscal year proved more lucrative for schools than most because of the nearly $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot, the world’s largest so far. Distributions for the 2018 fiscal year may also be greater thanks to five large jackpots since January – three Powerball and two Mega Millions.

The California lottery generates the fourth largest amount of state revenues after the Franchise Tax Board, which collects state income taxes; the Board of Equalization that collects sales and use taxes and the DMV.

Last year the lottery reported $6.2 billion ($6,233,468,423) in total sales, the bulk of those in scratcher tickets ($4,576,028,713) and Lotto games ($1,041,071,687.) Winners were paid nearly $4 billion in prizes ($3,963,453,360) and after operating and game costs almost $1.6 billion ($1,559,668,537) remained for schools.

— Story by Bob Porterfield and Bea Karnes, Patch; Image by Shutterstock