Thanks to former Georgia Governor Zell Miller, I was able to receive my entire first undergraduate degree for free. It was given to me courtesy of the millions of scratch-off fanatics, Fantasy 5 nuts and MEGA Millions hopefuls. The state of Georgia was much like Alabama prior to this move and the institution of the HOPE Scholarship. The lottery was voted down multiple times in the state prior to Gov. Miller finally being able to get the bill passed. It was a bill that would give rise to the education of millions of students who could not otherwise afford a college education.
Since its inception in our neighboring state, over three million students have received the HOPE scholarship. This fund gave its award recipients the opportunity to gain an education that they may have not even been able to get or would have had to take out thousands of dollars in loans to achieve it. Seeing such outstanding numbers and the mass of educations gained by using a state lottery to fund worthy students, Tennessee and South Carolina also adopted and instituted the HOPE Scholarship. So if this wonderful program that gives every high school student who meets the requirements a chance at a free education is so productive and lucrative, why has the state of Alabama not followed suit?
Alabama has no money. How would they be able to pay for such a large number of students’ educations? No state has the money to do this on its own. So how does a state attain enough revenue to accomplish this feat? It’s easy. HOPE is funded by a state lottery. Roll out the scratch-off tickets, start a drawing every Wednesday and Saturday evenings plus build a simple game of picking three numbers twice a day, then bingo (pun intended) you have billions of dollars in revenue! This money then pays for the education of fortunate students who deserve a shot at free schooling. HOPE has done this for over 20 years now and I am living proof.
Alabama, a state that ranks 45th in education according to U.S. News in 2015, could definitely stand to help a number of students reach higher learning by introducing a lottery funded college scholarship program. If they cannot give the gift of learning during the normal education years, why not present the opportunity of getting a college education while paying for it? It would be a nice way of making up for the lackluster years spent in public schools. By no means am I saying Georgia public schools are better, but at least they, along with other states, provide the chance at a free or near free tuition after 12th grade.
While the early reasons for not allowing a state lottery were largely attributed to fraud risk, the more prevalent reasoning for keeping a lottery funded education off the table falls under religious and moral reasoning (NASPL 2008). Many constituents and citizens, especially in the Deep South/Bible Belt, feel that gambling of any kind is morally wrong and goes against their religion. Some feel that gambling addictions would spring up or increase in their populations. Conversely, research shows that this is not the case. According to studies performed by the University of Chicago, research showed that multi-visit lottery patrons had the lowest prevalence of pathological and problem gambling among the gambling types examined.
As for the religious opposition to it, do you want to tell your children that they cannot receive a higher education for free because a scratch-off ticket helped fund it? As a parent, I find it utterly silly that a person would deny their child a chance at free school because they feel the lottery is gambling and goes against their beliefs. Here’s a thought – if you don’t like it, don’t play. And if this is still not enough to satisfy your religious conviction, then do not apply for HOPE.
Simply put, do not deny others a wonderful chance at advanced education free of charge over your own beliefs. Drinking of legal age isn’t against the law and neither is tobacco use. If you don’t like it, you don’t buy it. The same logic applies to this situation, only here by keeping a lottery out, you are robbing kids of the opportunity of a lifetime.
If you still need some convincing, there are many other facets where a lottery is beneficial to state-ran areas in need of funding. Neighboring states, as well as others in the U.S., use lottery money to fund health and welfare costs, Pre-K programs, teacher retirements, police and fire needs, veterans affairs necessities, game and fish funds, environmental trust funds, tourisms (economic gain) and even to provide free gambling addiction help services (encyclopedia.com). There are a plethora of other lucrative civil amenities that advance from lottery gains. It is almost damming to block a construct that can do so much good with overwhelming evidence of its success.
It’s 2016. Most all of the other states around Alabama have the HOPE Scholarship and have sent millions of prospective students onto a financially unburdened edification. If you need some reasoning to help you cope with a free education religiously, then simply view it as you took something you view as wrong and turned it into a beautiful positive detail in your life.
If you feel that a lottery funded education will increase gambling addictions, visit a rehabilitation center in one the HOPE states and ask how many people are there for gambling. If that is not doable, then simply read the studies that show lotteries do not largely have this effect. Let us enact the lottery and use it to fund free schooling. Let Alabama climb the education ladder and quit placing low in the rankings. Use HOPE to secure free education for those that otherwise could never afford college. After all, are we not supposed to be growing and learning as a people and how can we do that if we are constantly shooting ourselves in the foot by not allowing our children to be educated?
Kale Jenkins is a graduate student studying nursing. His column runs biweekly.
