School lottery cash totals $3.4 million

Many in Yorba Linda get a bit giddy when a lottery jackpot prize reaches the half-billion dollar mark, based on the crowded counters at this city's high-volume ticket sellers, during the days leading up to a big-dollar drawing.

But if local residents don't win any of the top offerings, they're consoled by the fact that at least 34 cents of every dollar they've spent on their dream goes to support public schools, including the 35 campuses in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

Sadly, the district's 22 elementary schools, six middle schools, five high schools and two special schools aren't awash in dollars as a result of the ever-increasing ticket sales, but district officials say lottery income, about 1.7 percent of total revenue, is “welcome.”

Lottery dollars for the just-commenced 2013-14 fiscal year are expected to total 3.4 million, according to current projections, out of a total $197 million general fund budget for the year.

Annual lottery revenue isn't a stable source of funding for the district, since the income has ranged from $77 per average daily attendance for 1991-92 to $180 in 1988-89.  This year's rate is expected to be $154, of which $124 is “unrestricted” and $30 is “restricted.”

The $30 figure represents 50 percent of the growth in lottery allocations and can only be used to purchase instructional materials.  The $124 figure can be used for any instructional purpose--but excludes acquiring property, constructing facilities or funding research.

This year's income would buy three textbooks per student, four computers per classroom or cover half of the district's energy costs for a year, according to district-provided figures.

But lottery expenditures are committed to the K-12 music program, counseling and the Educational Services Center, south of City Hall on Casa Loma Avenue, officials stated.

Since the first lottery ticket was sold in California in 1985, Placentia-Yorba Linda schools have collected $84.8 million in funding, with the 2012 calendar year total at nearly $4.3 million, only $20,000 behind the historic high attained in 2006, according to state lottery calculations.

Total collected by the North Orange County Community College District is $109 million, with a 2012 year total of nearly $6 million. The old Yorba Linda K-8 district received $950,065 before merging with the Placentia district in 1989.

The lottery was approved in 1984, when voters gave Proposition 37 a 58 percent majority.  Some $25 billion has been distributed to schools statewide: 76.7 percent to K-12, 16.2 to community colleges, 4.3 to Cal State universities, 2.7 to the University of California and the rest to other entities.

Lottery officials noted the $1.32 billion distributed 2011-12 made up 1.5 percent of state spending on public education, stating, “While that amount is relatively minor compared to public education's overall budget, it's still needed money schools are putting to good use.”