Lottery tops annual goal for education

The North Carolina Education Lottery transferred more than $86.2 million to the State Education Lottery Fund on Monday, officials said.

With the transfer, the lottery has provided $419.5 million to the state's public schools during the 2009-10 fiscal year, which tops the $419 million goal the lottery set for the year.

The lottery has contributed more than $1.55 billion to education since the state-run games were launched in March 2006. Overall sales have surpassed $4.89 billion.

The Lottery Act designates that 50 percent of proceeds be split between pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk 4-year-olds and class-size reduction in the early grades. Another 40 percent goes to school construction, and 10 percent goes to college scholarships.

While the money has to go to education, the bulk simply replaces normal state spending on schools instead of adding to it.