If property taxes and the lottery are supposed to fund education then why are so many teachers being laid off? A bit ironic, isn't it?

Not ironic, fraud perpetrated by GOP state legislatures.

Nope. That money is being wasted on principles and rules that aren't needed. It's exactly what they want done with the money. The less teachers, or the more stupid and worthless the ones that they have are, the less kids learn. The less they learn, the more controllable they are.

It's all a game to them and just proves that they don't really care about the people.

The state legislatures like to cut back on education spending to meet budget deficits. The state lottery money (for those states that do that) only makes up for the money that was cut out of the budget. People choose not to understand this, because they simply enjoy being angry about the government. Nobody wants taxes raised, nobody wants their favorite programs cut, so what's a state to do...

Yes

when the value of houses went down-- so did property tax's

Because they're so overpaid we can't afford as many of them.

How many?