S.C.'s poorest residents support the education lottery to their collective detriment

Charleston City Paper | March 31, 2012
What if the S.C. General Assembly announced a new tax that would be paid primarily by the state's poor and minority citizens? And that the majority of the money raised would not be used to help failing schools or aid students from impoverished backgrounds, but instead be used to provide scholarships to college-bound high school seniors, regardless of their financial needs? To lessen the sting of such a seemingly unfair system of revenue collection, the payment of the tax would be 100 percent voluntary. How enthusiastic would the average South Carolina citizen be for such a plan? If you could rate that enthusiasm on scale of one to zero, I'd say zero, unless the plan also promised participants a one in a 100 million chance of becoming a millionaire.

Charleston City Paper

Founded in 1997, the locally owned and operated City Paper is Charleston's only weekly alternative newspaper and the second-largest publication in the metro Charleston area. Reaching a strong mix of active, affluent locals and tourists, the City Paper has thrived...
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