Roughly four and a half years after the Mississippi Lottery sold its first scratch-off tickets, we may have our first sign it’s not helping our state’s schools.
The Lamar County School District is putting a bond referendum up for votes in May.
District leaders say the maximum amount of the bond issue would be $117 million. If approved, new facilities within the district would be built including the following: new buildings for Sumrall High, Purvis High, and Oak Grove Middle Schools; a new office building for Oak Grove Elementary School; and a new gym for Lumberton Elementary School.
To clarify, I’m not a Lamar County voter. All I can do is provide food for thought in these writings from 2018 and 2019. Yeah, yeah, in the latter link, you’re going to see a reference to, at least, a hypothetical “annual fall festival.” It was written before the pandemic. Mmm’kay?
An even further Doug’s Place Flashback: Just before I left Ohio in 1991, the school system of my Dayton suburb had a levy and bond issue up for votes. Both failed.
The Ohio Lottery — even though it’s home to a TV favorite in “Cash Explosion” as noted earlier — has been in operation since 1973. While a CE host has claimed to see a difference the lottery has made in his child’s school, levies and bond issues have been submitted for Ohio voters’ approval after 1973 — many times.