ATLANTA – Georgia public-school students outperformed their counterparts in the nation’s public schools on the SAT this year for the sixth year in a row.
The Georgia public-school Class of 2023 recorded a mean SAT score of 1045, 42 points above the national average for public-school students of 1003.
Breaking it down, the Georgia class posted a mean score of 534 on the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) portion of the test and 511 on the math component. Those beat both national mean scores on the SAT: 510 on the ERW part of the test and 493 for the math portion.
“I am extremely proud of Georgia’s students as they continue to beat the national average on the SAT,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said Monday. “This is a testament to the hard work of students and teachers along with the families who have invested in them.
“It’s also confirmation that Georgia is on the right track as we continue to heavily invest in academic recovery and address lost learning opportunities for every student in every school.”
Both Georgia public-school students and their counterparts across the nation saw a decrease in SAT scores this year compared to the Class of 2022. The Georgia mean score fell seven points from 1052, while the national mean score suffered a larger decline, dropping 25 points from 1028.
A slightly lower percentage of Georgia’s public-school Class of 2023 participated in the SAT – 50% – compared to 51% of the Class of 2022 students who took the test.
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers passed legislation on the last day of this year’s General Assembly session guaranteeing Georgians the right to fish in navigable portions of the state’s rivers and streams.
While the public’s right to fish had been established in Georgia for generations, Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders saw a need to codify it in state law after a property owner along a stretch of the Flint River known as Yellow Jacket Shoals declared fishing from the bank on its side of the river off limits. Four Chimneys LLLP sued the state, accusing the Georgia Department of Natural Resources of failing to enforce the ban.
“[Senate Bill 115] achieved a remarkable amount of clarity of [fishing] rights,” said Gordon Rogers, executive director of Flint Riverkeeper, an Albany-based environmental group that supported the bill. “What remains is where do those rights apply?”
A legislative study committee will begin meeting Oct. 4 to try to answer that question. The first of four meetings the panel has scheduled next month will take place in the small town of Gay, near the area of the Flint River that spawned the controversy.
Mike Worley, president of the Georgia Wildlife Federation, said he hopes the House Study Committee on Fishing Access to Freshwater Resources comes up with legislation giving the state Department of Natural Resources the authority to define what constitutes a navigable stream in Georgia and what does not.
“I would love to see … a map that says, ‘If you want to fish here and it’s green, it’s OK, and the ones that are red are closed to you,’ ” he said.
Worley said it’s clear from the locations of the four upcoming study committee meetings that the issue of fishing rights applies not just to the Flint River but throughout the state. The panel plans to hold two of its meetings in the cold-water trout stream country of the North Georgia mountains and a third in Statesboro, a city through which the Ogeechee River flows.
Rogers said the question of property rights versus the public’s right to fish also has come up in recent years along the Seventeen Mile River, a tributary of the Satilla River in southeastern Georgia; the Chestatee River, a tributary of the Chattahoochee; and along the Upper Ocmulgee River above Macon.
“It could blossom anywhere you have similar properties,” he said.
In fact, the legal fight over fishing already has expanded. Shortly after the General Assembly adjourned the 2023 session early last spring, a second property owner sued the state. Marker 21 LLC owns a stretch of the Flint directly across from Four Chimneys.
In a brief filed in Talbot County Superior County in July, Marker 21’s lawyers wrote that its client has a right to ban public fishing on its private property.
“The fact that some of that private property, including the river property, happens to be underwater does not negate the fact it is private property,” Brooke Gram and Patrick Silloway of Atlanta-based Balch & Bingham LLP wrote. “And because it is private property, one has no more right to stomp around the river property and take fish than one has to set up a deer stand in a farmer’s pecan orchard or cast a net into a neighbor’s koi pond.”
While both lawsuits were filed in the same area of the Flint, Worley said the issue has statewide ramifications.
“This could give practically any property owner on any stream in Georgia the right to close that stream to fishing,” he said.
Rogers said a new law setting forth a way to differentiate navigable streams from those that are not navigable is needed to prevent a flurry of lawsuits.
“What we need … to be fair and equitable to property owners and the public is to have a very clear process,” he said. “Otherwise, we’ll be in court battle after court battle.”
ATLANTA – The National Park Service (NPS) has taken the first step toward a bid to have the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The NPS announced Friday it is asking officials at the refuge to prepare a draft nomination for the Okefenokee to become the 25th World Heritage Site in the United States.
The Okefenokee is the largest blackwater swamp in North America. The refuge covers more than 400,000 pristine acres that support hundreds of species of plants and animals, including endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and threatened eastern indigo snakes. Okefenokee would be the first property managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to earn the World Heritage distinction.
“It’s thrilling that Okefenokee is finally taking this momentous step toward World Heritage inscription,” said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s a huge motivator to protect this irreplaceable, international treasure.
“From the towering old-growth cypress to the tea-colored wetlands teeming with amphibians and reptiles, every last inch of the Okefenokee deserves our recognition and protection.”
“The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is one of our best examples of holistic conservation in the United States,” added Geoffrey Haskett, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association. “The swamp … sequesters vast amounts of carbon in its wet, peat soils that might otherwise be emitted and exacerbate global warming and climate change – and its list of outstanding attributes goes on and on.”
The Okefenokee has been caught up in controversy for the last several years. An Alabama-based mining company is seeking state permits to mine titanium along Trail Ridge near the swamp.
While officials with Twin Pines Minerals say the project would not harm the Okefenokee, environmental groups opposing the mine say it would devastate the swamp by reducing water levels.
Legislation banning surface mining near the Okefenokee was introduced in the General Assembly twice but failed to gain support despite being cosponsored by 91 of the 180 members of the Georgia House of Representatives. However, lawmakers did adopt a nonbinding resolution last year calling for protecting the swamp as a valuable tourism resource.
The National Park Service will work with the fish and wildlife service and other partners in a lengthy process to prepare the World Heritage Site draft nomination. A committee of the World Heritage Centre comprised of representatives from 21 nations will have the final say over the nomination after consulting with an advisory body.
ATLANTA – The Georgia State Patrol is planning to build a new post on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday.
The 1,750-square-foot facility and garage bay will house 12 troopers directly assigned to the post and accommodate up to 30 troopers while maintaining the historic integrity of the mansion and surrounding grounds.
“With this new patrol post, our dedicated state troopers will have another base of operations as they take the fight directly to criminals,” Kemp said. “I look forward to seeing its positive impact on the Buckhead community.”
A rise in violent crime in Buckhead prompted calls among some Republicans in the General Assembly earlier this year for creating a separate city of Buckhead. But legislation calling for a referendum on cityhood for Buckhead failed on the floor of the state Senate last March.
The Georgia House added $1.3 million to this year’s state budget to fund the new post at the Governor’s Mansion. Construction is due to begin next year.
“This new patrol post is a significant long-term investment in public safety by the state of Georgia,” said House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington. “The patrol post will not only improve response times to incidents in and around the city of Atlanta but also improve coordination between state and local enforcement.”
ATLANTA – The State Transportation Board Thursday approved a $100,000 pay raise for Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry, increasing his annual salary to $550,000.
The 22% increase cleared the board unanimously without discussion.
The raise was the second in just more than two years for McMurry. He also got a $100,000 pay hike in May 2021.
The increase boosted McMurry from ninth to seventh on the list of the highest paid state employees, according to the website openpayrolls.com. He is topped only by Charles Cary, chief investment officer for the Teachers Retirement System, two co-investment officers for the TRS, the state’s chief operating officer and chief commercial officer, and Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority.
Cary is the highest paid state employee with an annual salary of $1.06 million, followed by Lynch, who is paid nearly $995,000, according to the website.
Openpayrolls.com did not include employees of the University System of Georgia, including University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart or university system Chancellor Sonny Perdue.
McMurry oversees an annual DOT budget of more than $3.7 billion, including $2.1 billion in state funds, and a payroll of nearly 3,900 employees.
McMurry was appointed commissioner in 2015 after serving as the agency’s director of planning and chief engineer. He began his career with the DOT in 1990.
