A debate has erupted in Nashville as to how excess lottery funds should be spent. Governor Phil Bredesen advocates diverting the excess to pre-K, a program that sorely needs more funding support. State Sen. Stephen Cohen (D-Memphis) couldn’t disagree more. Cohen, one of the original supporters of the lottery initiative, sees this as a bending of the rules, and unconstitutional.

Sen. Cohen wants to protect the lottery from future abuses by setting a precedent. “These are not trivial matters to Tennessee families and lottery revenues should not be in play because some want to divert lottery funds, contrary to the people’s constitutional mandate,” Cohen said.

On the other hand, the governor believes that it makes fiscal sense to use the money to move Tennessee out of the cellar in quality of education. Bredesen told the Chattanooga Free Press “I would have thought [Cohen] was supportive of pre-K. He is generally supportive of things that assist children, particularly poor children.”

To be frank, we think they are both partially right, and partially wrong.

The lottery was established to provide revenue for college scholarships. To that end, it has been an astonishing success, providing $123 million in less than six months last fall.

Rather than divert to another area of public education, we believe the funds should remain dedicated for college scholarships. But these should not be limited to first-time freshmen.

Even with scholarships, it is easy for a student to still amass debt at the end of their collegiate career. We believe they should offer scholarships for current juniors and seniors who had the opportunity to vote on the measure, but never personally benefited.