DDD you are right about the $$, at least in Florida, and it doesn't go to the district, it goes directly to the school. It's one of the reasons my girls' school is the local hub for the gifted program. The IEP $ for the gifted kids that get bussed in goes to our school, not the kid's home schools. Our school also gets to "invite" higher achieving kids, who wouldn't otherwise qualify, into the gifted program to see if it will work for them.
My school works this to their advantage. DD2's best friend transferred in from another school, and the mom was fighting them for a year to get an IEP - the child had ADHD and is legally blind. Once transferred to our school, she had an IEP within a month. On the flip side, if a school has only a handful of kids on IEPs then the extra money is not always enough to cover everything, and therefore not worth the effort.
Our lottery for education? That's quite the joke. As far as I know it's only going towards higher education in the form of Bright Futures Scholarships. Averages of 3.0 or higher as well as other criteria will qualify students for a scholarship. It's all well and good, but does not benefit education as a whole at all. And of course, the scholarship fund is also pleading hardship and increasing criteria while cutting benefits. Last year they also tried adding a provision that would require recipients to work a year in FL for every year of scholarship money they received. So if you get a very narrow degree in a very narrow field on scholarship, and there are no or few jobs in FL for that field, you still have to stay and work at McDonald's for 4 years until you can move out of state and use your education - or your have to pay the money back. Last I heard this was NOT enacted but I can see them trying again.