The North Carolina Education Lottery recently transferred $124.3 million to the state, the second one for fiscal year 2011.

Most of the money, $102 million, was transferred to the State Education Lottery Fund to support the education initiatives that the lottery serves, including teacher salaries for kindergarten through third grade, school construction projects, the More at Four preschool program for at-risk 4-year-olds and college scholarships based on financial need.

After the latest transfer is accounted for, the education lottery has:

n Raised $201.4 million for education in fiscal year 2011.

n Contributed $1.76 billion to education since the lottery started in March 2006.

n Exceeded $5.57 billion in total sales, as of Dec. 31, 2010.

"We're pleased we are continuing to do our part to supplement education funding in the state," said Alice Garland, executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery. "We know that every dollar that can be raised for education right now is a dollar that can be put to good use, whether it is school construction money to pay off debt and keep property taxes low or salary money for teachers in grades K-3."

The remaining portion of the transfer, $22.3 million, goes as directed by the N.C. General Assembly in its budget for fiscal year 2011 to cover a shortfall in federal Medicaid monies. Legislators directed the lottery to provide $35 million to help cover that shortfall.

Overall, about 95 cents of every dollar spent on the lottery stays in North Carolina. Currently about 58 cents of each dollar goes to pay prizes to winners, 30 cents to beneficiaries and 7 cents to retailers.

Of the remaining portion, 1 cent of each dollar is spent on advertising, 1.59 cents on the gaming system operated under a contract with G-Tech and the remaining 2.5 cents goes to administrative costs, including salaries.

A county-by-county breakdown of how lottery proceeds were distributed for fiscal year 2010 is available in the "Where The Money Goes" section of the lottery's website at www.nc-educationlottery.org. Overall, lottery proceeds represented about 5.6 percent of the state's $7.8 billion public education budget.