Reverse supplanting of funds?

The more you read these budget bills, the more little golden nuggets you can find.

Included in the Senate budget is $37.5 million in recurring funds for "class size reduction" to maintain the 18:1 student/teacher ratio in grades K-3.

But wait, I thought the North Carolina "Education" Lottery was supposed to cover that cost.  Apparently, since all of us didn’t buy enough lottery tickets, the Senate decided we should be on the hook for the money anyway.

Now, we can debate studies about whether class size reduction has any effect on student performance, (I tend to think it is more of a jobs program for the Teachers’ Union), but everyone should be in agreement now that the lottery funding formula absolutely must be changed.

This is what happens when the lottery – a non-recurring, variable source of income – is used to pay for recurring expenses (teachers’ salaries and students).  When too few people play the lottery, the rest of us get stuck with the bill.