ATLANTA – Georgia high school students earned an average ACT score of 21.6 this year, beating the national average of 19.8, according to new data from the state Department of Education.
This is the sixth year in a row that Georgia’s average ACT score has topped the national average. The ACT is a standardized college admissions test similar to the SAT.
Georgia students also beat the national average overall in each ACT subject: English, mathematics, reading, and science. The students also beat the national average for college readiness in each subject.
The state’s average ACT score of 21.6 is down by one point from last year’s average of 22.6.
The Georgia ACT results are similar to state SAT score trends. Georgia students beat the national average on the SAT this year, though the average score dipped slightly compared to the prior year.
About 35,000 Georgia students in the graduating class of 2022 took the ACT, while 57,000 or so took the SAT. Some Georgia students may have taken both.
“These students did not have an easy or typical high-school experience,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “The pandemic began during their sophomore year.
“Despite that, they have continued to beat the odds and find success – beating the nation on the ACT and SAT and recording an all-time-high graduation rate.”
During the pandemic, many colleges and universities waived the standardized test requirements.
Last month, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents announced the system will continue to waive the tests for admissions at most state colleges for another year. Emory University, a private institution in Atlanta, does not require students to submit their scores, though students may.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has opened a double-digit lead over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams, according to a poll released Wednesday.
However, Georgia’s U.S. Senate race is in a dead heat, the Capitol Beat/Georgia News Collaborative Poll found in a survey of 1,030 likely general election voters conducted Sept. 15-Oct. 4 by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs.
The survey found state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, with a slight lead for the open lieutenant governor’s seat over Democrat Charlie Bailey.
GOP incumbents hold a solid lead in both the races for attorney general and secretary of state, according to the poll.
Kemp drew the support of 51% of poll respondents to 40.7% for Abrams, giving the governor a lead of 10.3%. Libertarian Shane Hazel was a distant third with 2.3%, while 6% of those surveyed were undecided.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., was favored by 46.4% of the poll respondents, to 43.4% for Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Given the poll’s margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, the race is essentially tied. Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate, trailed at 4.1%, while 6.1% of those surveyed were undecided.
Support for Jones stood at 43.5%, with 38.8% of survey respondents favoring Bailey. Factoring in the margin of error left Jones with a slight lead over his Democratic rival for lieutenant governor. Libertarian Ryan Graham was third at 4.0%, and 13.8% of respondents were undecided.
While Kemp polled slightly above the 50%-plus-one margin needed to avoid a Dec. 6 runoff, the race for Senate and possibly the contest for lieutenant governor could be headed toward an extra round of voting.
The survey found Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger well ahead of state Rep. Bee Nguyen, 47.9% to 33.9%. Libertarian Ted Metz stood third at 6.3%, with 11.8% undecided.
Likewise, GOP Attorney General Chris Carr held a strong lead over Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, 47.4% to 38.8%. Libertarian Martin Cowen trailed at 3.6%, with 10.2% undecided.
Although both Raffensperger and Carr were short of the margin needed to win the Nov. 8 election outright, the large percentage of undecided voters left room for the two incumbents to get over the threshold.
Kemp’s lead over Abrams in the gubernatorial contest has widened over recent polls.
“I think he’s done a good job,” said Misty Dunn, 45, an archaeologist from Meriwether County, a regular Republican voter who supports Kemp even though she disagrees with his staunch opposition to abortion.
“I can’t vote the other way on that one issue,” Dunn said.
Aaron Williams, 42 of McDonough, who works for a telecommunications company, said he plans to vote for Abrams primarily because she is not a Republican, a party he has soured on.
“The conservative side has gone full on hypocrisy,” Williams said. “I can’t get behind a single conservative candidate.”
Wendy Meehan, 72, of Madison County, said she will vote to elect Warnock to a full Senate term because her positions in favor of Medicaid expansion and against the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion align with the Democrats.
Meehan said she doesn’t believe Walker is qualified to serve in the Senate.
“He should not be a Senate candidate,” she said. “Georgia could do much better than him.”
Lisa Elias, 53, a business owner from Gainesville, said she liked Walker when she saw him speak at her church.
“He seemed like a good man,” Elias said. “I’m a Christian, and I’m conservative in my values.”
But some Republican voters are starting to have concerns about Walker following allegations of violence against his ex-wife and that he paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion.
“If these things are true, that’s horrible,” said Sarah Simcox, 56, a kindergarten teacher in Forsyth County. “But I think politically he might be better [than Warnock]. … I’m struggling with it. It’s going to take a lot of prayer.”
Black voters who responded to the poll overwhelmingly preferred Democrats Abrams and Warnock, not surprising since most Black voters support Democratic candidates. But Warnock outperformed Abrams among that group of voters, 89% to 80.7%.
Walker, a former University of Georgia football star, drew only 2% support among Black voters, while Kemp was preferred by 8% of Black survey respondents.
Kemp held a solid lead over Abrams among men, 58% to 33.3%. Walker’s lead among men was strong but not as large as Kemp’s. Walker was supported by 52.5% of men who responded to the poll, compared to 37.7% favoring Warnock.
Warnock, however, enjoyed a huge lead among women, 53.6% to 36.3% for Walker. Women were much more evenly divided in the governor’s race, with 46.6% preferring Abrams to 45.4% supporting Kemp.
Broken down by age, Kemp held the edge among all groups except for those between the ages of 30 and 44. Among that group, Abrams led 50.6% to 39%.
Warnock led decisively among younger voters, those between the ages of 18 and 44. Walker turned the tables with a solid lead among the 45-64 age group and a smaller lead among voters 65 and older.
Kemp polled strongest among voters with a high school education or less, while Abrams’ biggest advantage was among college graduates.
The same was true in the Senate race, with Walker scoring highest among those with a high school diploma or less, and Warnock’s best showing coming from poll respondents with a college degree.
The poll was conducted via telephone, about 90% through cellphone interviews and 10% over landline connections.
The survey results were weighted to represent respondents proportionally in terms of race, sex, age, and education.
Staff writer Rebecca Grapevine contributed to this report.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks to a supporter after his campaign stop in Carrollton on Tuesday (photo credit: Rebecca Grapevine).
CARROLLTON – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker spoke to supporters at a campaign stop in Carrollton Tuesday but did not directly address recent unfavorable allegations about his payment for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion and violence against his ex-wife.
In the past few weeks, Walker has faced a string of troubling allegations. His son, Christian Walker, took to social media to criticize his father’s violence and parenting.
And the Republican’s staunch anti-abortion stance has been called into question by allegations from an ex-girlfriend who said Walker had paid for her abortion in 2009 and pressured her to get an abortion when she became pregnant a second time. Walker has denied the allegations.
But during Tuesday’s West Georgia campaign stop, fellow Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Tom Cotton of Arkansas praised Walker before a cheering crowd of supporters in a local shopping center parking lot.
Walker did not directly address the recent allegations against him at the rally but suggested that the claims are political smears aimed at dividing his followers.
“They’ll do what it takes because they want this seat,” Walker said.
Walker also spoke about his core campaign themes: inflation, crime, drug trafficking, and what he termed “wokeness” in American society, which encompasses social themes such as transgender rights and racism.
“Have you seen that [Southern] border wide open?” Walker asked, saying his Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock had done nothing to help build a wall on the border in two years in office.
Walker also criticized a move to grant transgender rights within the U.S. military.
“These are wartimes. What happened to push-ups? Iran and Russia are not talking about pronouns,” Walker said to cheers from the crowd.
And Walker took aim at Warnock, who is seeking a full term in the Senate in November. Warnock is the longtime pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the former church of Martin Luther King Jr.
“All he [Warnock] talks about is the color of your skin,” Walker said. “Has he ever heard of forgiveness? Has he ever heard of redemption?
“They want to tell white kids, ‘You’re an oppressor.’ They want to tell Black kids, ‘You’re a victim.’ … Don’t let them separate you.”
Walker’s decision to campaign with Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the GOP’s Senate campaign arm, drew criticism from Democrats.
“Walker’s embrace of Rick Scott – and his disastrous plan to slash Medicare and Social Security highlights just how much is at stake for Georgians in this U.S. Senate race,” said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia.
“While Rev. Warnock fought to lower prescription drug costs for Georgia seniors and protect Social Security, Herschel Walker is campaigning with Rick Scott, who’s fighting to cut Social Security for more than 1.9 million Georgians who rely on it,” said Sarafina Chitika, press secretary for Warnock. “Georgia seniors deserve a senator who will stand up for them, not someone who sees a friend in a politician who wants to slash their benefits.”
With just one month to go in the nationally watched Senate race that could determine the party balance in Washington, both candidates are benefitting from an influx of cash.
During the third quarter, the Warnock campaign raised about $26 million, while Walker raised about $12 million.
However, the Walker campaign said his fundraising amount was the largest quarterly total for any Republican U.S. Senate candidate in this election cycle.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Cases of COVID-19 and monkeypox are continuing to decline in Georgia, officials with the state Department of Public Health reported Tuesday.
COVID cases in Georgia are down about 80% since mid-August, Dr. Cherie Drenzek, the agency’s epidemiologist and chief science officer, told members of the state Board of Public Health.
Hospitalizations are down 89% since the omicron variant hit its peak last winter, while the number of deaths from the virus in Georgia has fallen to about 100 per week, she said.
However, three new omicron subvariants are starting to show up in Georgia and around the country, Drenzek said. Together, they account for about 23% of the current caseload in Georgia, she said.
“Whether they will continue to grow or not, I can’t say for certain,” Drenzek said. “It warrants us keeping a close eye on them.”
Dr. Alexander Millman, chief medical officer for the Department of Public Health (DPH), said the new booster shots that target the omicron variant can be administered at the same time as annual flu shots.
The new boosters are widely available to adults, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the children’s version of the booster soon, he said.
Drenzek said cases of monkeypox have declined consistently during the last few weeks both in Georgia and nationally.
Georgia has 1,839 cases of the virus in 64 counties, she said. However, 85% of those cases are concentrated in metro Atlanta, she said.
The vast majority of cases are in men who have sex with men, Drenzek said. In fact, 98% of the Georgia cases are in men.
Only 5% percent of the state’s monkeypox patients are hospitalized, Drenzek said.
However, a small number of cases are severe, usually involving HIV-positive men with compromised immune systems, she said.
Millman said monkeypox vaccines are proving highly effective in preventing the disease.
“This vaccine is truly able to protect people who have had exposure from developing monkeypox,” he said.
Amy Benson, who heads the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities’ Opioid Substance Misuse Response Program, told board members a new version of multi-colored fentanyl is gaining national attention.
None of the “rainbow” fentanyl has appeared yet in Georgia or bordering states, but it’s likely a matter of time before it does, she said.
While law enforcement agencies haven’t uncovered any efforts to market the drug to children, the multiple colors would appeal to young people, Benson said.
“With Halloween coming up, this is something that potentially could be a problem,” DPH Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey said.
Benson said efforts are underway in Georgia to increase public access to fentanyl test strips and to naloxone, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Political action committees supporting U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Republican challenger Herschel Walker released ads Tuesday accusing each other of domestic violence.
Warnock’s ad, funded by the Democrat-aligned PAC Georgia Honor, features the words of Walker’s son, Christian, a Republican activist who lashed out at his father last week following a media report alleging Walker had paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion in 2011.
Walker showed up at his ex-wife’s home with a gun and refused to leave, the younger Walker said.
“[Herschel Walker] threatened to kill us and had us move six times in six months running from [his] violence,” the ad’s narrator went on, quoting charges Christian Walker leveled at his father Oct. 3 in a social media thread.
Walker’s PAC, 34N22, countered Tuesday with an ad showing recently uncovered Bodycam footage of Warnock’s ex-wife during a domestic violence altercation in March 2020.
Ouleye Nodoye is shown in tears accusing Warnock of running over her foot with his car.
“Warnock ran over his wife with his car, refused to pay child support, and neglected the terms of his divorce,” 34N22 spokesman Stephen Lawson said. “He continues to throw stones in a glass house, and his blatant hypocrisy will now be on full display for Georgia voters.”
The dueling ads come just days before Walker and Warnock are due to meet in what apparently will be the only debate of the campaign. The two will share the same stage Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. in Savannah.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
