On the Democratic side, Attorney General Mike Easley and Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker pin all their hopes for school improvement on a risky proposition: a state lottery. Easley wants to strengthen the schools in all grades, K-12, reduce class size and begin a preschool for at-risk 4-year-olds. Wicker pledges to do even more:strengthen Smart Start, start a pre-kindergarten program, raise teacher pay beyond the national average, reduce class size in grades K-3, and promise college scholarships with lottery proceeds.

They dicker over whose proposal is more realistic and which figures stand the best chance of panning out over time. But both plans hinge on a type of legalized gambling that can only bode ill for the state’s residents.

Easley says North Carolina is the only state that’s playing the lottery and sending the proceeds to other states —a reference to all the Tar Heels who participate in other states’ lotteries. But this is also the only state sending all the lottery’s problems to the other states —

So, if you’re not for the lottery, you might be expected to turn to the Republican side of the ticket. But all three candidates —Rep. Leo Daughtry of Smithfield, former Rep. Chuck Neely of Raleigh and former Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot —say the public schools need more competition and parents need more choices. They want to siphon off public school funds for private school vouchers so parents faced with “failing” schools can have better choices.

The state cannot afford to simply bail out of schools that are struggling; what about the students left behind?The answer is to bring all schools up to higher standards, a process the state ABC plan has already set into motion —though you won’t get any of these guys to admit it. The practice of bad-mouthing schools to win political points has just about run its course.