Metro

Council candidate Treyger calls on profit-laden NYS Lottery to bring back scholarship program

A City Council candidate from Southern Brooklyn today called on the New York State Lottery to reinstate a popular scholarship program for students in light of the Lottery continuing to rake in record earnings.

The Lottery – which reported a record $2.9 billion in profits last year – suspended its “Leaders of Tomorrow” scholarship program in 2010. It had provided a $5,000 scholarship to a student from each high school in the state.

“This program used to help so many hardworking, bright students realize their dreams,” said Mark Treyger, a teacher at New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst running for the 47th council district seat currently held by term-limited Domenic Recchia Jr.

“It’s an outrage that despite posting record profits, the NYS Lottery cannot find the money to fund this vital program,” said Treyger, also a longtime top aide of Assemblyman William Colton.

“Families in south Brooklyn and throughout New York are struggling financially. Students are coming to me to ask where they can go to get help paying the rising cost of tuition.

“And as Albany debates whether to expand casino gaming throughout New York, how are families supposed to trust that they will be protected in that process when an important program funded by a profitable existing gaming effort cannot be maintained? In addition to being patently unfair, leaving this scholarship program unfunded hurts our state.

“Education is the best investment we could make for our state and local economies, and the students who would benefit from the Leaders award are precisely the type of civic-minded young people we should be encouraging.”