ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., introduced legislation Tuesday that would create a federal grant program to help technical colleges and community colleges match their workforce development programs with community needs.
The bipartisan bill – also sponsored by Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind. – would help train students for good-paying jobs in fields where the federal government has been making historic investments, including clean energy, manufacturing, and health care.
“We really need skilled workers, and not all these workers are from four-year colleges and universities,” Warnock said. “My bill would give a powerful and permanent tool to fill Georgia jobs with Georgia workers.”
The Pathways to Prosperity Act of 2024 would provide competitive grants to community and technical colleges to support partnerships between those schools and employers. The partnerships would work to establish, improve, and expand the colleges’ workforce development programs to align with local industry needs.
Warnock said he is looking to include the bill as a provision in workforce development reauthorization legislation now before the Senate.
“Technical and community colleges are among our most underappreciated and underfunded resources,” he said. “My legislation will make their efforts more robust.”
Groups endorsing the bill include the Progressive Policy Institute, the Association for Career and Technical Education, and the National Skills Coalition.
ATLANTA – The state is seriously underfunding mental health and housing services for veterans, professionals in the field told Georgia lawmakers Tuesday.
The state’s two veterans homes in Milledgeville and Augusta currently are serving about 400 veterans, far below the estimated need of 1,975. Neighboring states with lower populations – including Alabama and South Carolina – have up to a half dozen veterans homes inside their borders.
“We are woefully behind other states,” Patricia Ross, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Veterans Service, said during the initial meeting of the state Senate Study Committee on Veterans’ Mental Health and Housing. “We are really failing our veterans.”
Numerous studies have shown that veterans suffer from mental illnesses including chronic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder serious enough to contemplate suicide at much higher rates than the general population.
A recent Georgia-specific study found that one in five veterans suffers from substantial chronic stress, said Brian Moore, a psychology professor and director of the Ames Research Center at Kennesaw State University. One in five vets also are experiencing financial stress, which can lead to depression, he said.
Georgia veterans tend to have a hard time obtaining mental health services because they are uninsured at about twice the rate of the general public, Moore said.
The study also found that veterans suffer disproportionately from food insecurity and housing insecurity. More than 10% told researchers they don’t eat three meals a day, he said.
Moore cited national statistics showing Georgia is ranked 48th in the nation in access to behavioral services.
“It’s not because we can’t do it,” he said. “We just don’t have enough people to do it.”
Ross said there have been some success stories in Georgia, including the hiring of a suicide prevention outreach coordinator two years ago who has reached out to 12,244 veterans. Her agency also is working in partnership with the Ames center on a suicide prevention program, she said.
The state also will have a full-time coordinator to focus on veterans’ housing needs starting July 1, she said.
Moore said the state should build additional veterans homes to meet the need for mental-health services. He suggested Waycross and Dahlonega – with large veterans populations in their regions – would be good sites for two more homes. The federal government would pick up 65% of the construction costs, he said.
Moore also recommended establishing a state-level coordination center for veterans services that currently are being offered in a disjointed manner.
Ross said another area that needs improving is the way the state serves veterans making the transition from the military to civilian life. Veterans who haven’t made that transition successfully after three years tend to encounter serious mental-health issues, she said.
“What we have not done a good job with is to be able to capture these folks and help them with transitioning,” she said.
The study committee has until Dec. 1 to make recommendations for improving the delivery of mental-health and housing services for veterans in Georgia.
ATLANTA – The state is launching an in-depth assessment of Georgia’s prison system to identify steps needed to improve safety, Gov. Brian Kemp announced late Monday.
The governor’s announcement came one day after a food-service employee was shot and killed at Smith State Prison in Glennville. An investigation discovered that a personal relationship existed between the Aramark worker and inmate Jaydrekus Hart, and a suicide note was found that appeared to have been left by Hart, according to a statement issued by the state Department of Corrections.
More than 3,500 assaults between inmates occurred in state prisons between 2021 and last year, according to state prison data, while 98 inmates were killed during that time.
“Keeping Georgians safe continues to be my top priority,” Kemp said Monday. “By ensuring our correctional facilities have the funding, technology, infrastructure, and operations to fulfill their mission, this comprehensive assessment is the next step in achieving a safer, stronger Georgia for all who call the Peach State home.”
The corrections department will partner with Chicago-based Guidehouse Inc., a consulting firm with expertise in conducting assessments of prison system in all 50 states, to conduct the assessment of Georgia prisons.
During the next year, Guidehouse will visit multiple state prisons while working with corrections personnel to develop an assessment using evidence-based research. The company then will develop and begin to implement actionable recommendations.
“When Governor Kemp appointed me, he gave me the clear mandate to keep Georgians safe by improving our corrections system,” Commissioner of Corrections Tyrone Oliver said. “We’ve done just that by improving retention levels, removing approximately $7 million worth of contraband from our prisons, shutting down the largest contraband trafficking ring in the country, and more.
“But we know we have a lot more room to grow, which is why I’m thankful Guidehouse will provide a thorough review of our facilities and policies that will guide the next phase of … improvements.”
ATLANTA – Mail processing at the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) regional facility in Palmetto is getting better, but Georgians are continuing to suffer delays sending and receiving mail.
That was the upshot of an exchange Monday between Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
In response to an update Ossoff requested last week, DeJoy reported that 64.5% of first-class mail between May 18 and May 24 was delivered on time, up from a mid-March low of just 35.8%. In addition, 82.9% of first-class mail during that period was delivered within one day of on time, DeJoy wrote in a letter to Ossoff.
“Our 640,000 postal workers deserve the infrastructure to help them deliver mail six and seven days a week,” DeJoy wrote. “However, as a result of over a decade-long consequence of terrible congressional legislation and the resulting regulation, our infrastructure and work environment in the Atlanta area has deteriorated to an embarrassing and unworkable condition.”
Ossoff first raised the issue of delays in mail processing at the Palmetto center during a Senate committee hearing in mid-April.
DeJoy told the committee the delays were the result of problems encountered during the rollout last winter of a restructuring plan aimed at making the postal service economically self-sufficient. The plan was first implemented at the processing center in Palmetto and at a second center in Richmond, Va.
The postmaster general has responded by pausing the restructuring plan nationwide until at least the beginning of next year, adding more than 100 personnel from other centers to the Palmetto facility, and revising transportation schedules between Palmetto and other local mail processing centers.
“For months, I have sustained relentless pressure on USPS management to fully resolve disastrous performance failures impacting my constituents in Georgia,” Ossoff said Monday. “I’m still hearing from Georgia families and businesses about the difficulty they continue to face sending and receiving their mail. I will not rest until my constituents are well and fully served by the U.S. Postal Service.”
In his letter to Ossoff, DeJoy announced that as of May 31, 85.4% of packages – rather than mail – were being delivered on time, while 95.4% of packages were being delivered within one day of on time. Those numbers include prescriptions as well as business supplies and products, he wrote.
DeJoy also noted that the May 21 primaries took place without reported delays of mail-in ballots.
Vice President Kamala Harris (Photo Courtesy of The White House)
ATLANTA – The Biden administration has taken important steps to help Black Americans achieve home ownership and start small businesses, Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday.
But more needs to be done to make them aware of those opportunities, Harris said during a forum at the 38th annual conference of the mentoring organization 100 Black Men of America in Atlanta.
“This is a room full of people who can help get the word out on what is available,” she said.
Harris’ stop in Atlanta was the fifth in her nationwide Economic Opportunity Tour touting the Biden administration’s work to create jobs, make housing more affordable, and erase student loans and medical debt.
She and Biden have been actively courting Black voters, a demographic Democrats often have taken for granted, at a time the president’s polling numbers are slipping particularly among Black men and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is aggressively seeking Black support. In a case in point, Biden served as the keynote speaker during last month’s graduation ceremonies at Morehouse College.
Harris said Black Americans have a lot to overcome if they are to gain equal access to business opportunities enjoyed by whites. She said only 2% of venture capital investment goes to Black-owned businesses, while Blacks are three times less likely to apply for loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which she attributed to their fear of being disappointed when they’re rejected.
Harris said the solution likes in stepping up federal investment in community banks. She pointed to $12 billion Congress appropriated to community banks for small business startup loans while she was a member of the U.S. Senate.
“Putting the money into community banks is about putting it into a place where people can walk in with a sense of dignity that is respected and actually be able to have access to capital,” she said.
On the housing front, Harris said the difficulty Black Americans encounter obtaining loans to finance down payments goes back to the post-World War II era, when Black men returning from overseas were discriminated against when they tried to take out housing loans through the GI Bill.
She said the Biden administration is proposing a plan to give Americans who are the first in their family to seek homeownership a $25,000 credit for a down payment and $400 per month to help with mortgage payments.
“Homeownership is probably one of the most effective, efficient, and fastest ways to grow inter-generational wealth,” she said.
Harris also touted the administration’s recent order providing nearly $160 billion in loan forgiveness to nearly 4.6 million student borrowers. The offer will go not only to students who have obtained degrees but to those who haven’t graduated but still owe on their loans, she said.
To help Americans saddled with expensive medical bills, Harris said the Biden administration has proposed a new rule that would eliminate medical debt from Americans’ credit scores.
Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group, released a statement Friday criticizing Harris’ appearance in Atlanta as a “campaign tour highlighting the supposed successes of ‘Bidenomics.’ “
“Despite multiple visits from administration and campaign officials, we have one message for Vice President Harris: the Biden-Harris administration’s reckless spending and ham-fisted regulations are directly responsible for the economic hardships facing Georgians,” said Tony West, the group’s Georgia state director. “We will continue to advocate for sensible policy solutions that foster economic opportunity and growth.”
