Habersham Co. got $238M from Georgia Lottery last 25 years

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While the lottery turns 25 this year, that fact alone is not the only thing worth celebrating. According to Habersham County School Superintendent Matthew Cooper, the lottery has contributed significant funds to education.

Cooper said Monday, Oct. 21, at the Habersham County Board of Education’s (BOE) regular monthly meeting that Habersham County alone has contributed $43 million to the lottery to sponsor 11,212 HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Education) Scholarships from 1994-2018.

Additionally, Habersham County has contributed more than $20 million for Georgia pre-K, he said. Cooper said more than $3.7 million was also raised for capital outlay projects in the state through the lottery with a return of $238 million to Habersham County during the same 25-year period.

“I am not here to endorse the lottery or to discuss any moral implications that there may be,” Cooper said. “Those were discussed back in 1994. The fact of the matter is Georgia has one of the most successful lotteries in the nation, and we recently received a visit from the director of the state lottery and they presented us with this certificate recognizing 25 years of excellence for Habersham County in the Georgia Lottery.”

Cooper said what the numbers show for the lottery’s 25-year history is that Habersham County is not only sponsoring all of the HOPE Scholarship recipients from Habersham County, but also hundreds more each year from other counties.

And the numbers are just as astonishing for 2018. Cooper said last year there were 48 lottery retailers in Habersham County. In 2018, Habersham County contributed enough funds to sponsor 861 HOPE Scholarships.

“It’s mind-boggling,” he said. “More than $2.3 million in one year went to the HOPE Scholarship from this county alone. Pre-K is also funded by the lottery. … In one year in 2018, Habersham County sponsored 365 pre-K students.”

Cooper said one thing is for certain – “the lottery is raising significant funds for students here in Georgia.”

In other business, the board:

• Approved General Obligation Series 2013 Bond Refunding, which, according to Cooper, will allow the school system to save considerable money on interest. He said that will free up E-SPLOST funds to meet needs in schools;

• Approved the suppliers and vendors for the agriculture department/FFA;

• Approved a final reading of Policy GAN – Employee Tobacco Use. Cooper said there will be some efforts to educate employees about the revised policy and that it would go into effect Tuesday, Oct. 22;

• Approved the conferral of a high-school diploma for a House Bill (HB) 91 applicant who would have graduated in 1991. HB 91 was signed into law in 2015 and retroactively eliminates the Georgia High School Graduation Test as a requirement for former high-school students to receive their diploma, according to Habersham County Schools;

• Approved a date change for the board’s monthly meeting in December. The board is now scheduled to meet Dec. 16 instead of Dec. 9 at Clarkesville Elementary School.

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