After record ticket sales of $1.14 billion this fiscal year, the Tennessee Lottery will launch an initiative this month, including a new interactive website, to let gamers know about the educational programs their spending supports.
Officials also hope the site, called See How it Adds Up, will generate more interest in lesser-known scholarship programs such as the HOPE Foster Child Tuition Grant and the Rural Health Loan Forgiveness Program.
“It’s important for players to being able to say, ‘Yes, I’ve played my dollar, and yes, students are being served,'” said Rebecca Hargrove, president and CEO of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. “There are a lot of things we do that players don’t know.”
The website links to detailed information about all 14 lottery-funded education programs statewide, highlights an educator of the month and lists lottery spending per county.
In Hamilton County, for example, 4,814 students received some type of lottery scholarship this year, and only about half of those awards were HOPE.