Lottery money in Colorado goes to outdoor projects. Orginigally it went to outdoor projects, secondary education and prisons. Years ago an environmentalist group put an issue on the ballot that restricted use to outdoor stuff and it passed. So now we have gold plated bike paths but the public universities in the state are scraping for every penny. And before you say that education has plenty of money, that’s not true with higher ed in CO. K-12 has enjoyed a run of increases (thanks to another ballot issue) but our higher ed institutions are almost at the point of not being public any more.
If they are low on money, it's because they've spread it around like it was fairy dust. Mesa state- now Colorado Mesa University- has built 10 new dorms that look more like high-dollar resort hotels, then jacked up student fees to pay for them.
Tuition used to be about $1500/semester now it's 3500 and goes up every year.They continuously build gold-plated parking garages, underground soccer fields, pools, new buildings, ice rinks and you name it, the construction never stops.
They don't give a crap about how much tuition goes up to fund it all, they just tell the kids to get student loans. They give $100,000 of dollars to local groups- $100,000 donation to a local ice rink group !!!!
They have forgotten their mission- to provide a low cost college education, and now think they are some sort of gift to the community- a community- where the average per capita income is $18,000.00.
Screw them and their whining.They've priced thousands of local young people, including my own kids, out of a college education chasing their delusions of granduer and I look forward to the day the college bubble collapses.