CLEVELAND — As Ohio’s Lottery jackpots for the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings get bigger and bigger, more people buy tickets to play.
THE QUESTION
That raises this question: Do record size Ohio Lottery jackpots mean more money goes to Ohio schools?
THE SOURCES
To VERIFY the answer to this question, we checked with the following sources:
- Ohio Lottery Deputy Director of the Office of Communications Danielle Frizzi-Babb
- Ohio Department of Education & Workforce
THE EXPLANATION
As the Ohio Lottery’s Danielle Frizzi-Babb explains, “All Ohio Lottery profits go to the Ohio Lottery Profits Education Fund.”
All of the money in that fund goes to covering part of the education budget, but the Ohio Lottery doesn’t make enough to cover the entire education budget for any given year.
“Ohio Lottery profits account for roughly 12% of the education budget,” Frizzi-Babb said of the latest numbers.
The full budget for education is set for each year by the Ohio General Assembly, and fluctuations in profits from the lottery don't change those figures.
According to the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce, the education budget is set using a formula established under the Fair School Funding plan, which looks at the cost of education in each of Ohio's 609 school districts.
For the 2024 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2023 though June 30, 2024, state spending on k-12 education is expected to be $11.86 billion. For 2025, it’s anticipated to be $12.21 billion.
Those overall education budget numbers have nothing to do with how much profit the Ohio Lottery makes.
The money needed to pay for the majority of the education budget comes out of the General Revenue Fund (GRF), which is made up mostly of federal grants, sales tax and personal income tax. To put it another way, the Ohio Lottery helps cover Ohio's school budget for the year, but it does not create any additional support for schools.
THE ANSWER
So we can VERIFY the answer to the question, Do record size Ohio lottery jackpots mean more money goes to Ohio schools?, is no.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
No matter how many more people play the Ohio Lottery when jackpots hit record numbers like they have so often lately, it won't result in more money going to education.
It will, however, result in more money being freed up in the GRF to be used elsewhere by the state.