A story making its way around the state is that S.C. Education Lottery scholarships are costing taxpayers money from the state’s general fund budget.

This is one way of looking at expenditures on the LIFE and Palmetto Fellows scholarships, but it’s too simplistic.

The LIFE scholarship pays up to $5,000 per year to qualifying students statewide while the Palmetto Scholars scholarship pays $6,700 for the freshman year and $7,500 for the sophomore through senior years of college matriculation to qualifying students.