Summary

North Carolina HB 334 (Open States or North Carolina Legislature) allows a county to use state lottery funds for digital learning expenses, such as school connectivity, digital textbooks and instructional resources, digital devices, and associated ongoing professional development for teachers.

Legislative Analysis

HB 334 applies only to Buncombe County, but it is a good example of the state permitting a county to use their funding more effectively, in this case to use a portion of their lottery funds to improve digital learning opportunities for students.

The North Carolina Education Lottery legislation requires the distribution of lottery net proceeds for specific education purposes, including 40% of the net proceeds to the Public School Building Capital Fund for school construction. The rationale behind HB 334 is that since the lottery began in 2005, the innovation of digital learning and its growing use throughout schools in North Carolina have significantly altered the landscape of public education in the state. While the lottery money is currently designated for other necessary education expenses, the expansion of digital learning is also a crucial component to ensuring that North Carolina’s students graduate from high school globally competitive for work and postsecondary education and prepared for life in the 21st Century.

Buncombe County has already designated half of the local government sales and use tax revenue distributed to the County through the General Statutes to be used for school construction, improvement, and renovation. The County has lottery funds on hand that are not needed for the purposes to which they are limited. Therefore, HB 334 will allow the County to use lottery funds for digital learning needs such as school connectivity, digital textbooks and instructional resources, digital devices, and associated ongoing professional development for teachers, to help them learn how to most effectively use digital learning resources as teaching tools.

Legislative History

Detailed Vote History: Legiscan | Open States

Approved by Governor Pat  McCrory on 7/9/2013