It is truly incredible that the Powerball Lottery tomorrowevening will likely approach $1.5 billion, which testifies to thelong odds of winning the prize. The exceptional prize level alsotestifies to how much money is taken in by states that have lotterygames. Early on, most states that enacted lotteries earmarked therevenue for a very good cause: education. But big jackpots raisesthe question of whether the dollars are really going to ourschools.

I checked around and found that yes, many states doallocate the "net" proceeds to education. But not surprisingly,just as many have veered away from the intended cause and eitherspread the revenue around for not such good causes, otherwise knownas pork, or just dumped it into the general revenue bin for statebureaucrats to spend to their hearts content.

I bring this to your attention because this country'seducational system is broken, and some states can't even spendlottery dollars for it. According to recentglobal survey's by the education firm Pearson the US ranked17^th among the top 20 developed countries,only beating Hungary, Slovakia, and Russia.