Lottery question

I have no reason to doubt Harold Hayes, director of the Illinois Department of the Lottery, when he wrote in his Aug. 19 Guest View that “since 1985, the Illinois lottery has contributed nearly $25 billion in revenue to help fund K-12 public school education.” What I do question is whether this $25 billion was added on top of what the state should have been budgeting for education these past 39 years; or did creative legislators finagle the books by diverting $25 billion from the education budget into pork projects? Did the Lottery boost public school spending or simply allow our fiscally deficient state to swap earmarked State education funds for lottery income?

Larry Schneider

Lincolnshire