Chart by Megan Mallicoat, Jacksonville Today
Published on April 25, 2025 at 11:16 am
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As lawmakers in Tallahassee hash out next year’s Florida budget over the next week or so, some funding that local school officials rely on is on the table to be cut. Our Number of the Week is about one source of the state’s funding for public schools: the Florida Lottery. And this is one hefty number. Florida Lotto ticket sales totaled more than $9 billion (yes, billion with a B) last year.
$9,417,515,000
Almost 40 years ago, voters approved a constitutional amendment that created the Florida Lottery. Today, it operates as a state government agency, and part of its profits are funneled to a trust fund that supports Florida’s K-12 and higher education institutions. How much, though?
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Q: Jacksonville Today reader Mark L. wonders how much revenue from the Florida Lottery is supporting public education like proponents promised it would.
“I remember when the lottery was proposed and launched, it was going to be a godsend for school systems and provide extensive funding. Once it was approved and launched, what it provides to schools seems to never be talked about. They only talk about getting money by raising property taxes,” Mark wrote to us.
“What happened to all the money schools were supposed to receive from the lottery?”
A: The Florida Lottery puts its profits into the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund, which state lawmakers use to fund various educational endeavors as specified in each year’s state budget. School districts also used to receive a separate discretionary fund from the lottery that was based on enrollment, but documents show that hasn’t been part of the budget since 2019-20.
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The Florida Lottery says it spends about two-thirds of its revenue on prizes and gives a little less than 25% to the state’s education fund. Less than 1% of its revenue goes toward administrative expenses. Its top executive, Florida Lottery Secretary John F. Davis, makes about $171,000 per year.
One of the most visible benefits of the lottery in the education realm is that it pays for Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship Program, which provides college or career training tuition for the state’s highest-performing graduating high school seniors.
Money from the lottery trust fund also pays for projects like buildings or establishing new programs at universities. Last year, for example, Florida State College at Jacksonville received about $88 million in lottery funding, and the University of North Florida got $125 million.
Comparatively little lottery money ends up in neighborhood schools’ pockets. The Florida Lottery’s most recent numbers available say the state gave about $4.8 million lottery dollars to Duval Schools in 2021-22, which represented less than one-half of 1% of the district’s revenue that year.
In contrast, Jacksonville’s community colleges received $13.6 million, and universities received $23.3 million that year.
The “Other” category of spending includes the Bright Futures scholarships.
