Every now and then when the “Mega Millions” lottery gets to a certain point, my dad will drive to Virginia and buy a ticket. While I, the enlightened son, see that it’s ridiculous to play the lottery, it doesn’t bother me that he does.
What bothers me is that if my dad was able to buy a lottery ticket in Tennessee, not only would he save a significant amount of gas and about an hour and a half of his time for each trip, but I would probably be going to school for free.
The HOPE scholarship in Georgia, fully paid for by lotteries, pays in-state tuition and books for every high school graduate with a GPA of 3.0 or greater. While the other three states, (Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri) also mooching off of Tennessee, have given money to education, none have been as dedicated or as effective as Georgia’s.
Many people believe that the lottery is morally wrong and it abuses the poor.
What about watching Virginia hand out scholarships, paid for courtesy of the poor citizens of Tennessee, while these poor citizens pay for their children’s education? Now that is abusing the poor.
I’m not saying I think lotteries are good, what I’m saying is that Tennessee is one of the narrowest states in the union and we’ve got a bunch of moochers around who are paying for their education with our money.
I propose we join the mooching and pay for everyone to have a remedial course in probability and statistics.

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