Arkansas Lottery scholarship funds reach $300 million

In less than three years, the Arkansas State Lottery has amassed more than $300 million dollars for its program designed to provide college scholarship opportunities to students in the Natural State enrolled in two- or four-year degree programs.

Director Bishop Woosley said that more than 90,000 Arkansas pupils have gotten scholarships for college from his organization.

"We are, above all, proud of the thousands of scholarship students - those who have graduated and those working toward their goals," he said. "We are grateful to Arkansas lottery players who enjoy the games and contribute to the scholarships."

However, the Arkansas Times explains that this doesn't mean that the majority of lottery proceeds are going to help students. According to the news source, Arkansas is only besting three other states in the nation in terms of the percentage of lottery proceeds that are funneled into scholarships. Citing numbers from the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, the news source states that only 20 percent of the $473 million the Arkansas lottery brought in last year went into the scholarship program. Meanwhile, 50 percent of Oregon's lottery funds went towards educating youth.

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