Virginia Lottery reportedly generates $901M for K-12 education

The Virginia Lottery generated a record $901 million in profits last fiscal year, we’re told, which, if the math holds up, will be a $901 million benefit to K-12 education in Virginia in the coming school year.

Good news there, with the Trumpers about to gut the U.S. Department of Education, supposedly to block-grant money to the 50 states – except that they’re also threatening the block-grant money for blue states.

News flash: Virginia is about to go full blue again here in a couple of months.

Trump’s minions are readying their punishments for us as we speak.

In the here and now, we had an oversized check photo-op with our MAGA governor, Glenn Youngkin, and the director of the Virginia Lottery, Khalid Jones, on Monday.

“Every dollar generated through the Lottery directly supports the teachers, schools, and programs shaping the next generation of Virginians, reinforcing our promise to provide a world-class education. This vital source of funding represents nearly 10 percent of our K-12 education budget to ensure that classrooms across Virginia have the resources they need to foster learning, innovation, and opportunity,” Youngkin said in a statement.

Ten percent – wow, I had no idea.

Good thing people blow their money at dreaming of getting rich through the lottery, which is less likely through the lottery than getting struck by lightning.

“The profit from our games goes into the state’s Lottery Proceeds Fund, which benefits every school division in the Commonwealth,” Jones said. “The fund supports several essential K-12 education programs, and approximately one-third of the profits allocated to each division is discretionary funding for that division to address their priority needs.”

The $901 million that we’re hoping is there for our schools – the numbers are not official until the Auditor of Public Accounts certifies the final profit figures later this month – comes from the $5.7 billion that was thrown at lottery tickets in the fiscal year ending June 30.

Out of that $5.7 billion in sales, $4.5 billion was returned to players as prizes, $901 million is set to go to public schools, and $127.9 million goes out in commissions and bonuses to businesses that sell the tickets.