ATLANTA – The Biden administration Friday completed a weeklong push for a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure bill now before the U.S. Senate with the appearance of a third Cabinet official in metro Atlanta.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured the Curiosity Lab, a testing space for innovative automotive technology in Peachtree Corners, then stopped by the MARTA rail station in Doraville.
“We see here how state and local partners, public and private, already are working to create our transportation future,” Buttigieg said at the Curiosity Lab. “It’s time for the federal government to step up, too.”
The infrastructure bill includes $550 billion in new spending. The rest consists of previously approved funding.
Of the new spending, $110 billion would go toward roads and bridges, $66 billion would be spent on passenger and freight rail, $65 billion would be used to expand broadband service, and $55 billion would go toward water and sewer projects with a goal of eliminating lead pipes.
Another $39.2 billion would go to public transit systems including about $1.5 billion for MARTA and other transit agencies in Georgia, while $7.5 billion would be used for electric vehicle infrastructure including charging stations. Georgia’s share for charging stations would be about $135 million.
“Georgia plays a big role in the deployment of electric vehicles,” said state Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry.
McMurry cited the two EV battery manufacturing plants South Korea-based SK Innovation is building in Jackson County and the Blue Bird plant in Fort Valley that produces electric school buses.
Buttigieg said the money in the infrastructure bill going to advance the electric vehicle industry would both create American jobs and help combat climate change.
“The movement of the automotive industry toward electric is inevitable, but having it based in America is not,” he said. “This is our chance to demonstrate the old false choice of climate versus jobs will be broken in the 2020s. We have an opportunity to capture that EV future in America.”
The Senate was working through a series of proposed amendments to the infrastructure bill Friday and could vote on it as early as Saturday. While the measure enjoys significant support among Senate Republicans, it could run into trouble if and when it reaches the U.S. House of Representatives.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is threatening to block the measure until the Senate takes up a larger $3.5 trillion bill providing funding for the nation’s “human” infrastructure needs, including education, child care and health care. The larger measure lacks Republican support.
To bolster the infrastructure bill’s chances, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made stops in metro Atlanta earlier this week.
ATLANTA – When the coronavirus pandemic struck Georgia in March of last year, Georgia’s colleges and universities suddenly had to switch to online instruction to protect students and teachers from the virus.
Now, the University System of Georgia is applying the lessons learned from that experience to establish the state’s first all-online four-year degree programs.
Valdosta State University is launching an E-degree pilot project this month that will offer eight undergraduate degrees in subjects ranging from criminal justice to general business to elementary education.
“We were always fearful some courses couldn’t be taught online,” said Rodney Carr, vice president for student success at Valdosta State and director of the school’s new Online College for Career Advancement.
“[But] we learned that’s not always the case. Some of these courses, even a lab science, could be done online. We just had to figure out how.”
Carr said the degree programs that were chosen for the pilot tend to attract non-traditional college students, a group the project is targeting.
“We designed this around the person who’s returning to school,” he said. “It’s for non-traditional students who either haven’t started college because something got in the way after high school or who need a credential to advance their career.”
Mary Tucker falls into the latter category. The Valdosta native graduated from Valdosta State in 2007 and entered the financial services workforce, first in Jacksonville, Fla., and later in Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C.
Tucker said she decided she wanted to get a job in the federal government and felt she needed additional education to accomplish that goal.
She started looking around Northern Virginia for universities offering the courses she wanted that could fit into her full-time work schedule. It was then that she came across information on the new Valdosta State E-degree program and decided to sign up for an online degree in organizational leadership.
“I was pretty nervous,” Tucker said. “My first degree was all in the physical classroom.”
Anticipating that sense of uncertainty among students unfamiliar with how an all-online degree program would work, Valdosta State has created “concierge coaches,” faculty and staff volunteers who check with students periodically on how they’re doing and what additional assistance they might need.
Carr said the school has signed up 295 concierge coaches, with each taking responsibility for 10 to 15 students.
Tucker said having a concierge coach has been helpful.
“She made me feel a lot more comfortable with the process,” Tucker said. “It was like having my own one-on-one person to make sure I succeed.”
Tuition for the new E-degree program has been set at $299 per credit hour, in the mid-price range among University System of Georgia institutions and less than the courses offered online by the private for-profit University of Phoenix and Southern New Hampshire University.
Carr said the program doesn’t charge students for books or other materials.
“We looked at every barrier we thought exists out there and how we could tackle that barrier,” he said.
To avoid overwhelming students holding down jobs, the courses are taught just two at a time in eight-week increments.
Carr said the program is starting off with about 120 students, with a goal of increasing that to 300 to 400 by the end of the 2021-22 academic year.
“We’ve only done a little bit of marketing,” he said. “We’re starting to ramp that up some.”
Carr said the pilot project is making a four-year commitment. After that, it will be evaluated by the university system Board of Regents.
“The goal is to get people to walk across the stage and get to the finish line,” he said. “If we’re enrolling students and meeting their needs, that’s what success looks like.”
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp Friday defended his decision not to impose mask-wearing or vaccination mandates on Georgians to stem the latest surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
“I don’t believe we need to have a dictatorship in government telling what local school systems need to do, what private businesses need to do, what nonprofits need to do, or what individuals should do,” Kemp said during an appearance at Ball Ground Elementary School in Cherokee County to mark the start of a new school year. “Individuals need to make the best decision they can.”
Kemp said Georgians seem to be getting the message about the need to be vaccinated against COVID-19. He said vaccinations in Georgia have risen 66% since cases of the virus began to increase in recent weeks with the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.
“People who haven’t been vaccinated are realizing the delta variant spreads more rapidly, and they’re looking into getting vaccinated,” he said.
Kemp said his decision not to impose a statewide mask mandate in Georgia schools is driven by his philosophy of local control.
“We’re doing the same thing we did last year,” he said. “We’re trusting the local school systems, the local boards, to work with their parents, work with their administrations, to make good decisions for each individual school.
“Every school is different. They’re different neighborhoods, different counties. They’re rural. They’re suburban. They’re urban. … I’m confident our schools can make decisions at the local level.”
School districts have been doing just that, with some imposing mask mandates for students and teachers and others leaving it up to the individual.
Kemp has been facing pressures from both sides of the political aisle on the masking issue. Some Republicans have urged him to prohibit school systems from imposing mask mandates on their own, while some Democrats have called for a statewide mask requirement in the schools.
On Friday, Kemp urged the Biden administration to move forward with formal Food and Drug Administration approval of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“The vaccine is still under emergency authorization,” the governor said. “A lot of people won’t take the vaccine because of that.”
In keeping with the education theme of his appearance at an elementary school, Kemp strongly hinted he will follow through next year with the final installment of a $5,000 teacher pay raise he pledged on the campaign trail three years ago.
In 2019, the General Assembly approved a $3,000 pay hike. Then this year, teachers got another $1,000 in the form of a one-time bonus.
Heading into the 2022 legislative session this winter, the state is sitting on a large budget surplus.
“I have not forgotten the promise,” Kemp said, referring to his campaign promise of a $5,000 teacher pay raise. “We’re looking forward to working with the General Assembly on that issue.”
ATLANTA – This month’s oral arguments before the Georgia Supreme Court will be held remotely, Chief Justice David Nahmias announced Thursday.
Word that the high court was going back to online proceedings came less than a week after Verda Colvin was sworn in as the newest Supreme Court justice during a live ceremony inside the state Capitol and two months after the court resumed conducting in-person hearings at the nearby Nathan Deal Judicial Center.
Nahmias cited the increase in cases of COVID-19 resulting from the highly contagious delta variant and the resulting revision of public health guidelines.
“We continue to encourage courts to conduct remote proceedings when it is lawful, effective and safer,” Nahmias said. “Our court would prefer in-person oral arguments, but we have found remote oral arguments to be reasonably effective and safer for those involved with them.”
Nahmias said evidentiary hearings and jury trials elsewhere in Georgia’s court system that must be done in person should continue subject to “appropriate health protections.”
Former Chief Justice Harold Melton issued a string of statewide judicial emergencies after the coronavirus pandemic first struck Georgia in March of last year.
Although the most recent of those orders expired June 30, the state Supreme Court has extended emergency rules allowing all levels of the court system to continue conducting some proceedings using video conferencing technology.
This month’s oral arguments in the Georgia Supreme Court are scheduled to take place Aug. 24, Aug. 25 and Aug. 26. No decision has been made regarding the oral arguments set for mid-September.
ATLANTA – First-time unemployment claims in Georgia rose by 1,421 last week to 13,406, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
The department has paid almost $23 billion in state and federal jobless benefits since the coronavirus pandemic began 17 months ago while processing more than 5 million unemployment claims. That’s more than during the 10 years before the virus struck Georgia.
Information on filing an unemployment claim as well as resources for reemployment assistance can be found on the agency’s website at https://dol.georgia.gov. Job listings and job search assistance can be found at https://employgeorgia.com.
