ATLANTA – University System of Georgia (USG) graduates from the Class of 2021 will earn more than $1 million more during their lifetimes than they would have without earning a bachelor’s degree, according to a new study.
The study, conducted by Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, revealed the breakdown of how much each level of higher education can add to a USG graduate’s total earnings over their lives.
“The difference higher education makes on a person’s life is dramatic,” said system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “Whether you are a high school graduate trying to decide between going to college or entering the workforce, or you are a mid-career adult wanting to improve your earning potential by completing your degree or adding to your education, this study clearly demonstrates a college degree in Georgia is a worthwhile investment.”
The report showed that earnings increase substantially with each step up the ladder of post-secondary education. On average, the study found each credential generates additional earnings over a person’s lifetime by:
·$238,455 for a certificate.
·$377,000 for an associate degree.
·$1,152,500 for a bachelor’s degree.
·1,399,500 for a master’s degree.
·$2,037,500 for a doctorate.
Based on work-life earnings estimates for Georgia, the analysis showed the 70,641 USG graduates from the Class of 2021 can expect combined total lifetime earnings of $179 billion, $60 billion more than they could expect to earn had they not gone on to college or graduate school.
Perdue announced at this month’s Board of Regents meeting the creation of a new website, Georgia Degrees Pay, where students and their families can glean comparative information on schools, majors, academic outcomes, costs and future earnings.
The future earnings tool allows users to see earnings after graduation by major and institution. It also compares a range of earnings by academic area one, five and 10 years after graduation.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA — A federal judge ruled Friday that the federal government should not have blocked a proposal to reform Georgia Medicaid.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and other leaders had sought permission from the federal government to change Georgia’s Medicaid program.
The state applied to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for approval of a non-traditional Medicaid plan called Georgia Pathways. The program requires most people getting Medicaid insurance to work, volunteer, or study for a certain number of hours each week as well as to pay a small premium.
In October 2020, while Republican Donald Trump was still president, CMS approved Georgia’s Pathways plan. When Democratic President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, CMS told Georgia it was rescinding its approval of the plan.
Lawyers for the state then sued in federal court last January, asking U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to block CMS’ rescinding of its approval of Georgia’s plan.
“This case is about whether the federal government must keep its promises,” the original complaint said.
The judge did just that on Friday.
“CMS’ decision to rescind approval for Pathways was arbitrary and capricious,” Wood wrote.
The judge identified several problems with CMS’ ruling.
“[CMS] measured Pathways against a baseline of full [Medicaid] expansion, rather than taking the demonstration on its own terms,” Wood wrote.
And CMS relied on what Wood called an “impermissible factor” in making its decision: health equity. The federal agency also did not give any explanation for the change in policy, the judge said.
Kemp praised the court ruling Friday with a post on his Twitter account.
“Despite the Left’s efforts to claw back good policy for partisan politics, this week the judiciary … ruled the Biden admin[istration] erred in striking down our innovative health-care waiver, which would better serve Georgians than a one-size-fits all Medicaid expansion,” the governor wrote.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that Georgia’s Public Service Commission (PSC) elections should be put on hold until the state can fix its unusual voting system.
The PSC regulates the state’s public utilities and sets utility rates. Under Georgia’s system, commissioners run statewide but must live in one of five districts.
The current case began when a group of prominent Black leaders sued the state, claiming the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved a redistricting plan last March that dilutes the Black vote in two of the five PSC districts.
Initially, a lower federal court ruled that Georgia must put its PSC elections – originally scheduled for November – on hold until the state can reform its system for electing the commissioners.
The state appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate court reversed the lower court’s decision, saying the PSC elections could proceed as planned.
The challengers appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
In vacating the appellate court ruling Friday, the Supreme Court left the door open for the appellate court to consider certain additional challenges but not any revolving around the timing of the election.
“We are pleased that the Supreme Court took this important step toward ensuring that this November’s PSC elections are not held using a method that unlawfully dilutes the votes of millions of Black citizens in Georgia,” said Nico Martinez, one of the lawyers for the challengers.
“We look forward to presenting the merits of our case on appeal and are confident the district court’s well-reasoned decision will ultimately be upheld.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s plan for a network of electric vehicle charging stations crisscrossing the Peach State is in the hands of the Federal Highway Administration.
But the state won’t be able to start tapping into $135 million in federal funds set aside to build EV charging stations in Georgia until the General Assembly sets rules for what is now a fledgling industry.
“This is going to be one of the biggest transitions we have ever seen in this country in transportation and in the way of life,” said state Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell. “We need to be prepared.”
Powell is a member of a joint legislative study committee that will begin meeting Aug. 24 to look for ways to move the EV charging industry forward in Georgia. He and House lawmakers learned the difficulty of the challenge during this year’s legislative session when two bills fizzled amid a dispute between lobbyists for the state’s power companies and Georgia convenience stores.
Some of the obstacles stem from EV technology, which is still in its early stages. While slow charging is fine for homeowners who park their EVs in their garages overnight, even the fast chargers designed for public charging stations can take up to 30 minutes.
“We’re used to pulling up at a filling station or convenience store, filling up and hitting the road,” Powell said. “Folk aren’t going to sit there for 30 minutes.”
Other technological challenges include dealing with the drain on the power grid that would result from the widespread charging of EV batteries and disposing of batteries following their useful life, Powell said.
But what tripped up the General Assembly this year was where to put EV charging stations.
Angela Holland, president of the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores, testified during a House subcommittee hearing last winter that convenience stores would be a logical choice since they already sell gasoline.
“Convenience stores are specifically designed to accommodate cars without disrupting traffic,” she said. “It makes sense for the electric-vehicle driver to search for fuel in the same place as the gas-powered engine drivers search for fuel.”
Other potential retail sites for EV charging stations include restaurants, hotels, and shopping malls.
Representatives of Georgia utilities say power companies also should have a place in the EV charging industry. Besides selling electricity to retailers operating charging stations, utilities also could build and operate their own stations.
Georgia EMC, with its rural customer base, would be particularly well suited to enter the EV charging station business, said Kevin Curtin, the company’s senior vice president for government relations.
“We serve 73% of the state land mass, the vast majority in rural areas of the state,” he said. “We have experience providing services to areas that are unavailable to commercial providers.”
Stephanie Gossman, electric transportation manager for Georgia Power, said retail businesses could be reluctant to invest in charging stations in rural areas in this early phase of the industry’s evolution.
“We are uniquely situated as a regulated utility to be able to invest in our rural and underserved communities, so this technology will be available to all Georgians when they’re ready for it,” Gossman told the House subcommittee.
But Holland cautioned that letting utilities in on the ground floor of the EV charging station business would stifle competition because – unlike retailers – power companies could recover the costs of the stations from their commercial and residential ratepayers.
“Without a business model that makes sense – that includes some statutory and regulatory framework that provides our industry a level playing field – convenience store owners will continue to shy away from building [EV charging] infrastructure,” she said.
Curtin and Gossman said there’s room for everyone who wants to get into the EV charging business because the need is so great.
To qualify for the federal money that’s out there, Georgia must build 40 to 45 EV charging stations along designated “alternative fuel corridors” on interstates and U.S. highways, Mark Smith, senior planning policy coordinator for the Georgia Department of Transportation, told members of the State Transportation Board Aug. 18. Only 11 have been built thus far, he said.
The federal funds are expected to serve as a catalyst for the businesses eventually expected to invest in owning and operating charging stations in Georgia.
“It doesn’t make sense for the private sector to be there today,” Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry said. “This is trying to help private industry meet that business case.”
Holland said she’s optimistic lawmakers and lobbyists will come up with workable legislation on EV charging stations during the 2023 General Assembly session starting in January.
With EV manufacturers Rivian and Hyundai Motor Group building huge plants in Georgia, there’s a sense of urgency to act, she said.
“Georgia’s so ingrained in this industry,” Holland said. “This is something we’ve got to do.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
State school superintendent candidates Richard Woods and Alisha Thomas Searcy discuss how they would improve Georgia’s education system during a forum in Atlanta.
ATLANTA – The two candidates for state school superintendent laid out their respective visions for improving education Thursday during a forum sponsored by the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.
Incumbent Republican Richard Woods, who is seeking a third term in November, described his achievements as state superintendent over the past eight years.
His administration reduced the number of high-stakes tests students have to take each year and the number of observations their teachers have to undergo, Woods said.
Woods said his administration has increased support for teachers. He pointed to a recent pay raise for teachers and a new law that allows retired teachers to return to the classroom at full pay.
The state Department of Education (DOE) also recently published a report on teacher burnout in Georgia. The DOE will soon announce a program to provide free mental health support to teachers, Woods said.
“I think the best thing we could do to address mental health in the state is giving our teachers time to build relationships with their kids,” he said. “If you put a great teacher who was nurturing in front of each and every child, that means that they have hours of therapy each day.”
Under Woods’ watch, the DOE has bolstered career and technical education in the state, he said. The department is creating new English and Language Arts standards as well, which will help address sub-par literacy rates among Georgia students.
Woods said he sees the role of the DOE as “service and support” and “compassion over compliance.”
Woods’ competitor, Democrat Alisha Thomas Searcy, said her past experiences as a school superintendent, a state legislator who served on the House Education Committee and the mother of three school-age children qualify her for the position.
Searcy ran for the post in 2014 but lost in a Democratic primary runoff. Before that, she served as a state representative for 12 years.
Searcy said that she envisions a Georgia where every school has a mental health professional on staff.
“Yes, that’s expensive. Yes, that’s a big goal. But, darn it, don’t our kids and our teachers and educators deserve that?” she asked.
Searcy said that the state education funding formula needs an overhaul. A Georgia Senate study committee will begin examining that issue on Friday.
“We still have districts in rural areas in particular who don’t have nearly the adequate funding to serve the students in their schools,” Searcy said. “That should be unacceptable to educators in the state. It ought to be unacceptable to leaders in education.”
Searcy said she thinks the DOE should serve as a clearinghouse for districts across the state to share lessons learned from new programs or approaches, especially as districts look to spend millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funds.
“While certainly districts in the state have received these funds, there’s been very little leadership on providing support and guidance to districts on innovative ways that these funds can be used,” she said.
Searcy said the state should also ensure schools have access to educational technology that can help with assessing where students need extra support, especially after the COVID pandemic caused many students to fall behind.
“I’m living with a sense of urgency,” she said. “I will do something.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
