03/19/2024
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BladenCountySchoollogoAccording to the North Carolina Lottery, funds raised through playing the various games affiliated with the lottery support our state’s education system. So where does the money go?

According to the NC Education Lottery website, $4 billion have been raised in the nine years the lottery has existed.  The funds are spent with 58 percent going towards school support personnel, 19 percent going towards, school construction, 15 percent going towards prekindergarten, 6 percent going towards need-based college scholarships and 2 percent going towards UNC system need based scholarships.

According to the Education Lottery website, since the lottery was implemented in March 2006, Bladen County has been allotted $16,685,226.

Bladen County Schools Finance Director Sharon Penny said that, with the exception of construction funds, about all the lottery funds designated for the school system are distributed to the county in the allotment received each year from the state.

According to the NC Education Lottery website, since the lottery was implemented in March 2006, Bladen County Schools has received about $5 million to pay the salaries for 95 teaching positions; $3.9 million for construction projects; $5.8 million for 1,257 four-year-olds at-risk Pre-Kindergarten enrollments; $937,399 for 886 needs-based college scholarships; $321,513 for 1,046 financial aid grants for the UNC university system.

According to the benefit statement for FY 2014, the latest benefit summary available on the website, Bladen County was allotted $717,099 to fund 13  positions; the county received $337,165 in funding for school construction; the school district was allotted $535,671 to help with funding for 112 prekindergarten slots.

When it comes to the pre-kindergarten slots, Penny said that, like many of the other funds, they are given to the county in the annual allotment from the state.

“We are told how many slots (for pre-kindergarten). How many are funded by the lottery, I don’t know,” said Penny.

The NC Education lottery websites shows that 84 needs-based college scholarships were awarded for a total of $87,892 and 190 needs-based scholarships for UNC university system for a total of $32,623.

The district was also allotted $53,601 for digital learning needs, for a grand total of $1.7 million for FY 2014.

Penny said that when it comes to the allotment for digital learning, she said she did not know how much of the allotment received was education lottery funds and how much comes from the state’s general fund.

Penny emphasized that many of the funds itemized in the Education Lottery, come to the school district through the state’s allotments with the exception being the construction funding.

Most recently, lottery funds were used to repair a roof on Elizabethtown Middle School and to make repairs to the HVAC system.

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