The North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL) transferred $68,580,917 to the State Education Lottery Fund for sales during the first two months of the fourth quarter of the fiscal year -- April 1May 31.

This brings the total transferred to the State Education Fund for Fiscal Year 2007-2008, which runs July 1, 2007, through May 31, 2008, to $318,808,453.

"With one month to go in this fiscal year, we have surpassed last year's transfer to education," said Tom Shaheen, NCEL executive director. "We anticipate another sizable return for the month of June. All of us at NCEL are committed to supporting our core mission of raising money for education."

The NCEL has transferred a total of $696.7 million to the State Education Fund since its inception on March 30, 2006.

The NCEL made the electronic transfer to the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) to be disbursed to these beneficiary programs: More at Four; class size reduction; school construction; and need-based college scholarships for students.

The Department of Public Instruction will manage the distribution of the funds for all the beneficiary programs except the college scholarships, which will be handled by the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority.

Since inception (March 30, 2006) through June 23, 2008, the NCEL has surpassed $2.17 billion total gross sales.