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The N.C. Education Lottery has made its first payment into the Education Lottery Fund.The $95 million is in addition to $55 million that was transferred into a reserve account earlier this year. While lottery proceeds will help state and local government meet educational demands, it’s certainly no cure-all for the strain that a growing state is putting on the educational system. Under the state’s lottery law, 40 percent of net proceeds — after prize money and overhead are taken out — is earmarked for school construction. Ten percent goes to need-based scholarships. Half of the money goes to other educational programs, such as some of Gov. Mike Easley’s pet projects. In Onslow County, the total first installment came in at just over $540,000 with $411,000 going for construction. County officials plan to request that the school construction funds be used to pay interest on the $90 million school bond approved by voters last fall. Legislative analysts had predicted that the lottery would bring in $425 million in net proceeds during its first year. If the remaining three, quarterly deposits are the same, the lottery’s contribution to education would be about $380 million. Lottery officials, however, say that summer is generally not the greatest season for lotteries. And they hope that some newer games will help raise the amount of proceeds closer to that $425 million. Whatever the lottery’s contribution to education, it can’t meet growing educational demands of the state — particularly when it comes to building new schools. Those that believe in ever-growing government will probably call for more taxation to build new schools, help students pay tuition and pay for other educational programs; however, we believe there are better ways than making the taxpayer fork over more money to the government to address the current and future needs of North Carolina schools. One way would require the General Assembly to lift the cap on charter schools. While this would not solve the construction burden on local governments, it would help ease it. The reason is that tax dollars pay only operating costs to charter schools. Such schools do not get tax dollars for school construction. Another step lawmakers could take would be to make private education more attractive to parents. This can be done in a number of ways, including offering tuition vouchers for private education or providing parents the opportunity for tuition tax credits. This would ease some of the school construction pressure that local governments are feeling. None of these measures (more charter schools, vouchers or tax credits) is a panacea for the school-construction pressures that many governments across the state are feeling — neither is the lottery; but they all help.