by Ty Tagami | Apr 29, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s lottery-funded pre-kindergarten program used to be the envy of the nation, offering high-quality schooling for free.
But the program peaked in 2019 as enrollment started to fall, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic.
“Ominously, some states that have been leaders in universal preschool continued a long-term decline in enrollment, including Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin,” the National Institute for Early Education Research said in a press release this week that sums up its latest annual report.
The quality of Georgia’s program, long a source of pride for state leaders, ranked below other states during the last school year, according to the institute’s just-released study, “The State of Preschool in 2024.”
The institution, based at Rutgers University, gave Georgia a score of eight out of 10 on its benchmarks for quality, dinging the state for relatively large class sizes.
The organization notes that its report doesn’t cover the current school year, when $97 million in new state funding took effect. That money is meant to boost pre-k teacher pay and reduce class sizes and student-teacher ratios. This presumably will result in a perfect score on the institute’s next report, said W. Steven Barnett, founder and senior director at the institute.
He suspects this year will mark a turning point for Georgia, with a return to national leadership in preschool excellence.
But enrollment will remain a challenge. Some states have maintained high enrollment rates, with four out of five eligible children attending public preschool, Barnett said. Georgia used to have over 60% enrollment, but that is down to 55%, according to the institute’s new report.
“Georgia is on its way back up, putting quality first, putting more money into the program,” he said. “But you’re still at 55% enrollment, and when you have states up over 80%, then that’s not a leading position.”
A host of studies have clarified the value of preschool, with children who attended quality pre-k programs finding an easier path to success in elementary school and after. Barnett said long-term studies have found the experience increases the odds of attending and graduating from college, tends to boost income and even correlates with better health and longevity.
Quality is key, and Barnett credited Georgia for its focus on that. The state has hit his institution’s eight benchmarks for good curriculum, teacher preparation, health screenings and use of data for program improvement. He noted a fundamental conundrum on the two benchmarks Georgia didn’t meet: by decreasing the number of students in each classroom to reduce class sizes and student-teacher ratios, the state will reduce capacity at each facility, which won’t help enrollment rates.
Amy Jacobs, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, acknowledged the shortage of seats but said the state is working on it. Lawmakers updated the state’s education funding formula to let schools count 4-year-olds in their enrollment numbers. Enrollment dictates how much money each school district gets, so that change will lead to capital funding to build more pre-k capacity in coming years, she said.
Jacobs said there remains a perplexing mismatch of supply and demand around the state, with some parents unable to find an open pre-k classroom for their child while seats in other areas go empty.
Enrollment used to hover around 80,000 but it’s dropped to around 70,000, she said, and it’s unclear why.
“We know the birth rate is down. It continues to be down in Georgia. I think that’s part of it,” Jacobs said. She added that the remote work and hybrid schedules that are a legacy of the pandemic have probably changed how parents approach child care and preschool.
Georgia is not alone on this. Although some states such as Iowa and West Virginia have maintained high enrollment rates, others have seen their numbers drop, Barnett said, especially in low-income neighborhoods. He thinks the de-emphasis on in-person attendance during the pandemic may have led some parents to devalue schooling in general. Maybe they’re dropping their kids off at the neighbor’s house where they’ll watch TV all day, he said, rather than driving their kids to pre-k.
by Ty Tagami | Apr 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Transgender students born male can no longer participate on female teams in Georgia’s schools and colleges now that Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a ban passed by the General Assembly.
On Monday, Kemp inked his signature on seven bills, including the Riley Gaines Act of 2025. It is named after a Kentucky college swimmer who lost to a transgender competitor at an NCAA competition held at Georgia Tech three years ago.
“This commonsense legislation is about what is fair and safe for our children,” Kemp said.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said the issue is not partisan. Rather, he said, “it’s about right and wrong.”
The House of Representatives backed a similar bill, but Senate Bill 1 emerged as the final version. Burns and the top Republican on the Senate side, Lieutenant Gov. Burt Jones, made it a top priority. Jones, a potential candidate for governor, did not attend the bill signing ceremony, but said in a written statement that Georgia lawmakers had kept a promise to female athletes, “Just like President Trump is delivering on promises made in D.C.”
In early February, Trump signed an executive order affecting schools and transgender athletes. His “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order withholds federal funding from schools that do not “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports … as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Critics contend Georgia’s Senate and House measures were overkill, a massive effort against rare instances of transgender participation in sports. But proponents, including Frontline Policy Action, a fundamentalist Christian advocacy group that helped draft them, argued that allowing transgender students born male to compete against females was both unfair and dangerous, given the variance in physical strength.
Despite hours of testimony, no evidence was presented of instances in Georgia’s elementary or high schools where a significant problem was caused by transgender participation. Critics noted that lawmakers named their legislation after a college athlete from another state.
Georgia now joins more than two dozen states with a similar prohibition.
The law applies to any competitions that involve public schools and colleges and includes participating private schools and colleges. It allows the state to financially punish institutions that willfully fail to comply, including withholding direct funding as well as funds for scholarships, loans and grants. It also allows lawsuits and monetary damages against such institutions.
The law also prohibits transgender athletes born female from participating on male teams, though there was no significant testimony about problems caused by their participation in sport.
Kemp also signed House Bill 268, a sweeping school safety measure that requires that routinely updated digital campus maps be shared with first responders, that schools equip staff with mobile panic alerts and that student records be transferred within five business days of a student’s change of schools. It would also allow children ages 13-17 accused of committing a terroristic act on campus to be tried as an adult, with potential prison time and convictions that would go on their records for life.
Kemp also signed House Bill 81, to enter an interstate compact on licensing school psychologists; House Bill 235, to give school staff time off to donate organs; House Bill 307, for screeners and support plans for students with dyslexia; Senate Bill 82, to encourage school districts to authorize charter schools, and Senate Bill 123, to address chronic absenteeism.
by Ty Tagami | Apr 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A federal judge in Atlanta said she will decide by month’s end whether the government must extend the visitor status of 133 current and former college students who were suddenly revoked for no apparent reason.
Judge Victoria Marie Calvert heard oral arguments Thursday in the case involving at least 26 foreign nationals attending a Georgia college or university or doing post-graduate work. Another 106 are in other states, but the students’ lawyers argue their cases should be bundled together in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to reduce the workload on the court.
It’s a core issue that Calvert must consider before she decides on the preliminary junction sought by the students. Calvert already issued a temporary restraining order against the federal government on Friday, ordering that the students’ visitor status be restored.
But her order expires May 1, and a preliminary injunction would secure the students’ status under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program until the trial concludes.
Their lawyer, Charles Kuck, argued that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security failed to follow its own rules when it revoked his clients’ visitor status without providing a reason.
Assistant U.S. Attorney R. David Powell argued that a preliminary injunction could allow the international visitors to stay past the original expiration dates of their visitor status. He asked that any preliminary injunction be tailored to each plaintiff’s expiration date.
The case may be the largest of its kind in the country, but numerous others have been filed, including two class action lawsuits, one in Washington and another in New Hampshire.
On Wednesday, Judge Leigh Martin May, who serves in the same courthouse as Calvert, denied a temporary restraining order sought by three foreign students whose visitor status had been revoked.
But Kuck said the trend favors students. He said judges nationwide have issued 17 temporary restraining orders in similar cases.
Powell acknowledged the impact, saying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been busy restoring students’ status.
“More orders are coming out every week and every day,” he said. “Sometimes multiple per day.”
Kuck said after the hearing that he hopes the government backs down, but he said he doubts President Donald Trump will allow that to happen. He said he is prepared for a fight that could go on for “a long time.”
The immigration attorney said his office has been bombarded with calls and emails from nearly 700 students nationwide whose visitor status has been revoked.
“We’re going to file a class action (lawsuit),” he said. “This is a disaster.”
by Ty Tagami | Apr 23, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A second candidate has raised his hand to become Georgia’s next attorney general, as incumbent Chris Carr campaigns for the governor’s office.
Both of the candidates who have filed paperwork to raise funds to campaign for attorney general are Republican state senators.
Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, a lawyer who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, registered with the Georgia Ethics Commissions’ campaign finance system in late March. Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, a lawyer who chairs the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee, registered Wednesday.
Neither reported collecting any money yet.
Strickland, who chaired a study committee on the affordability of child care last year, was the chief co-sponsor of legislation that sought tax credits for parents of young children. The legislation did not pass. Lawmakers instead sent a general tax credit of between $250 and $500 to Gov. Brian Kemp, who signed that measure last week.
Cowsert, who chairs a committee that has been investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, was recently granted authority by the Senate to expand his scope to include groups founded by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Cowsert also sponsored Senate Bill 255, which seeks to give his committee subpoena powers. It passed the Senate and the House of Representatives after bitter partisan debate, with one leading Democrat labeling it “authoritarianism.” It awaits Kemp’s signature.
by Ty Tagami | Apr 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A federal judge is giving the U.S. government a Tuesday evening deadline to reinstate the immigration status of 133 current and former college students who would have had to cease attending classes and holding jobs after they lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program status for no apparent reason.
A lawyer for the students and recent graduates argued at a hearing last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia that they faced irreparable harm, including deportation and the risk of not earning degrees they had paid for.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the office of Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie, Jr., argued the government would face irreparable harm if the judge ordered that the students’ status be reinstated, because it would “interfere with the executive’s right to control immigration,” meaning President Donald Trump.
Judge Victoria Marie Calvert sided with the students, issuing a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration late Friday and requiring that the students’ status under the visitor program be restored by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The balance of harm weighs with the plaintiffs, she wrote in her order, as they risked losing their lawful status, their access to education, and their future career prospects. She noted that Assistant U.S. Attorney R. David Powell had asserted in a hearing Thursday that the revocation of the students’ visitor status did not necessarily reflect whether they had lawful nonimmigrant status. So restoring their status would have no effect on the government’s control over immigration, she wrote in her order.
The students’ lawyer, Charles Kuck, had said in court that his clients were not told why their status was revoked, and he asked for the restraining order to provide time to seek clarity with the government.
Calvert agreed, writing that “there is substantial public interest in ensuring government agencies abide by federal laws.”
The judge has scheduled another hearing for Thursday, when both sides will argue over whether the judge should next issue a preliminary injunction on the students’ status.
Akiva Freidlin, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, hailed the temporary restraining order as a rebuke against the way Trump has implemented his immigration policies.
“The Constitution protects everyone on American soil, so the Trump administration cannot ignore due process to unjustifiably threaten students with the loss of immigration status, and arrest and deportation,” she said. “We believe this ruling shows the students are likely to prevail on their claims and we are pleased the court ordered the government to halt its unlawful actions while the lawsuit continues.”
