Lottery’s Payoff for Education Is $50.68 a Student

SACRAMENTO —  Bill Honig, state superintendent of public instruction, said Friday that up to $272 million in lottery money being sent to California schools in the next few weeks will amount to $50.68 per student.

The money is being distributed under the lottery formula that allocates 34% of sales to public education.

The checks for education’s share of sales cover the period through the end of 1985 and are based on first quarter sales of $800 million.

“We should remember that this is a tiny fraction of the roughly $3,400 per pupil raised by taxes and other public monies,” Honig said in a statement. “The extra $50 will help bring California up to the average spent nationwide, but we should remember that California still lags far behind the major industrial states.”