The lottery, as a specific case, has an unfortunate loophole. If the lottery funds public education, it allows the general fund from the legislature to allocat

The lottery, as a specific case, has an unfortunate loophole. If the lottery funds public education, it allows the general fund from the legislature to allocate less money, with a fairly-clear conscience, to public education. The argument, "Math education is already well-funded by the lottery, and we have $IMPORTANT_CAUSE that desperately requires resources, so we will cut state support for math." is difficult to counter. The net outcome is that lotteries become a state-ordained tax on being less mathematically-literate. I would welcome any suggestion that counters this slippery-slope scenario.