by Ty Tagami | May 8, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A shadowy group that claims to have hacked a popular educational platform is reportedly trying to extort money from colleges and schools across the country, including in Georgia.
The group, which calls itself “ShinyHunters,” claims to have hacked the Canvas platform, a popular digital hub for submitting assignments, taking quizzes, checking grades and communicating with instructors.
The product was developed by Instructure, a global education technology company with a U.S. headquarters in Salt Lake City.
Instructure told users Thursday that it was investigating problems they were experiencing when they tried to log into their online portfolios. The company also said it had placed its platform in “maintenance mode,” although a recent update said the platform was available for “most” users.
The outage affected students at all levels, including at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where students were alerted by email Thursday of a “major cybersecurity breach” affecting Instructure.
The student newspapers at universities across the country reported on the hack.
The Daily Pennsylvanian at the University of Pennsylvania reported Thursday that ShinyHunters had claimed to have stolen emails and private messages, student names and ID numbers, and course enrollments. At Duke University, The Chronicle reported Thursday that the group was threatening to release the data if it wasn’t paid a ransom.
By Friday, Georgia Tech was telling students that Canvas access had been partially restored and that students should communicate directly with instructors about affected assignments and exams.
Thursday was the last day of classes at Tech, but some or many K-12 school systems use Canvas and are weeks away from summer break.
“We understand that there is a worldwide Canvas/Instructure outage impacting over 9,000 institutions,” a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Education said by email Friday. She said Instructure had not provided information yet about the full scope of the incident.
The state agency oversees, but does not directly operate, Georgia’s 180 school districts. However, it does directly operate a handful of specialty schools, including Georgia Virtual School.
“Out of an abundance of caution, GaDOE has implemented security protocols and directed Georgia Virtual School students and staff not to use the platform until further notice,” the spokeswoman wrote. “We continue to coordinate with the Georgia Technology Authority and the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency on this matter.”
The education agency encouraged school districts that contract with Instructure to monitor the company’s user information page. The spokeswoman said the education department would offer support as the situation evolves.
It is unclear how many school systems rely on Canvas as their main learning management system. The Fulton County School System in metro Atlanta does and announced Thursday that Canvas “is completely down and inoperable for students, parents, and teachers.”
Fulton said on a web page about the outage that Instructure said student passwords, Social Security Numbers, and financial information were not involved but that names, email addresses, school assignments, and internal Canvas messages might have been.
The district said it was collaborating with law enforcement and was trying to identify workarounds for the remainder of the school year.
The disruption could make it difficult to report grade point averages for college scholarships, even for schools that do not use Canvas.
That is because many districts have students who turn to the Georgia Virtual School for Advanced Placement classes that are unavailable locally. Without Canvas, the systems cannot access their official grades.
“They’re going to have trouble calculating salutatorians and valedictorians unless they find another way around that,” said John Zauner, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association. “They’ve got two weeks to get it resolved.”
by Ty Tagami | May 7, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — When Georgia voters complete their ballots this year, one of the people they select will be the next person in charge of overseeing elections.
The Georgia Secretary of State handles business registration, professional licensing and regulation of charities and securities, all essential to the economy.
But that elected official also serves a role that is vital to the operation of democracy: voter registration, ballot preparation and certification of election results.
The upheaval that followed President Donald Trump’s assertion that he won the 2020 election is the main wedge between candidates running for secretary of state this year.
All but one Republican said at a debate last week that the 2020 outcome was still in question and that the electronic voting system in use in Georgia then and now is deeply flawed.
“I think 2020 is still in question to be frank with you,” said Kelvin King, whose wife, Janelle King, is a Republican appointee to the State Election Board. “The things that I’ve learned studying our elections have been just startling. The bottom line is this: we haven’t had a clean election over the last several elections.”
Ted Metz, who described himself as an inventor, said “it is clear to anyone that has a brain” that the voting system is plagued by “irregularities” in vote counting and in administrative and procedural functions. “There are so many botched things,” he said.
Former DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones, who was a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party, said defenders of the current system say there was no “widespread” fraud. “Well, people want to know how wide was the wide,” he said.
Only Gabe Sterling, a former chief operating officer for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, said voters trust the outcomes produced by the current system. He pointed to record turnout for early voting for the May 19 primary, which had started by the time of the April 28 debate. “We have the best and safest elections in America,” he said.
The tone among Democrats, who debated later that afternoon, indicated faith in election integrity and wariness of naysayers.
Penny Brown Reynolds, a former Fulton County State Court judge, lashed out at Republican state lawmakers for stripping Raffensperger, also a Republican, of his voting powers on the State Election Board. Lawmakers did that after Raffensperger clashed with Trump over the outcome of the 2020 election.
Courts found no fraud, and Gov. Brian Kemp, also a Republican, backed the outcome, she noted, yet Raffensperger was still sidelined by “the MAGA, Donald Trump and others,” she said. “They want to do everything they can to try to control our elections.”
Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner, pointed to the FBI seizure of Fulton ballots from 2020, saying the January raid “was aimed at setting us up for a state takeover of our elections, which is extremely dangerous.” She said the Republican-majority state election board “is completely MAGA-controlled and they pose the biggest threat to our votes in the state of Georgia. If the state elections board tries to take over the elections in Fulton County, the largest county with the largest concentration of Democrats, we will be in bad shape,” she said.
Adrian Consonery Jr. said Georgia could increase confidence by explaining to the public how its system of voting works “in the form of a Schoolhouse Rock video or something of that nature,” adding, “We definitely need a way to educate our Georgians on how the process works to avoid any McCarthyism in the future.”
It was a reference to U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who led a campaign in the 1950s against Americans he accused of being communists or communist sympathizers.
Cam Ashling, a financial planner, suggested making election day a state holiday to increase voter turnout.
The Republican candidates, except for Sterling, advocated for a swift shift to hand-marked paper ballots.
That appears unlikely after the election board on Friday rejected a petition to require regular use of the backup voting system. The backup system uses pre-printed and hand-marked paper ballots that are fed into a scanner for tabulation. It is intended for power outages and other emergencies, and local election officials have been testifying at hearings for months that they do not have time to implement the system at scale.
The Georgia General Assembly banned the use of machine code to tabulate results effective July 1. Georgia’s current system uses touchscreens in kiosks that print voter choices on paper, along with a “Quick Response,” or QR code, used to tabulate votes.
Despite passing the ban in 2024, state lawmakers have neither authorized nor paid for a new system. They blame Raffensperger, and he blames them.
State Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, a Republican candidate for secretary of state, led a legislative study committee of the voting system last year. The committee recommended hand-counting ballots with QR codes this November before buying a new voting system in fiscal year 2027. Fleming did not appear for the GOP debate.
Watch the Democrats for secretary of state debate at https://www.gpb.org/events/news/2026/04/28/georgia-secretary-of-state-democrats-atlanta-press-club-debate
Watch the Republicans for secretary of state debate at https://www.gpb.org/events/news/2026/04/28/georgia-secretary-of-state-republicans-atlanta-press-club-debate
by Ty Tagami | May 6, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump got on the phone for a “tele-rally” Wednesday evening to clarify any confusion about who had his endorsement for Georgia governor in the Republican primary: Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
“I love you and I guess you at least like me,” Trump said after Jones introduced him to listeners as the “our best president in my lifetime.”
Jones backed Trump’s effort to challenge the results of the 2020 election, and was investigated for his role by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. The courts removed her from the case, which was then dismissed.
Trump and others were indicted, but Jones was not.
He “has my complete and total endorsement,” Trump said. “He blows his competition away.”
Polling has consistently shown wealthy entrepreneur and political newcomer Rick Jackson with a slight edge over Jones, a Republican who has worked his way up the political ladder in the General Assembly. Jones served in the state senate before winning election statewide as lieutenant governor, presiding over the chamber.
They have both sounded similar notes in candidate forums.
Jones said at one such event last month that discussions about issues, such as affordability and taxes, were less important than a gut check by voters.
“Everybody’s talking about the same thing,” he said at the Georgia Association of Manufacturers’ forum in Cobb County. “And so at the end of the day, the voters have to decide who it is that they think can best execute on these promises.”
Trump tried to clarify the answer for his own supporters.
Jones will be better on crime, job growth and taxes — and election integrity, the president said, reiterating what he has repeatedly said about the “disaster” of an election in Georgia in 2020.
Get out and vote for Jones, Trump said. “You’ve got to make it too big to rig.”
by Ty Tagami | May 6, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — When people with autism get pulled over in Georgia, the police officer who stops their vehicle may soon have special training to reduce the risk of a misunderstanding that can escalate into a confrontation.
Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday signed “Rio’s Law,” named after a boy with autism whose mother, Layla Luna, advocated for a similar law that passed in South Carolina after a difficult traffic stop.
Senate Bill 433, by Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, creates a specialty license plate for people with autism or a developmental disability. It also requires that basic training courses for police include techniques for recognizing people with those conditions and for communicating effectively with them and employing alternatives to physical restraints.
Kemp signed that bill with nearly a dozen other public safety measures, including one for an increase in state contributions to police 401(k) plans (Senate Bill 452), another to reopen the application window for benefits for officers with a brain injury (House Bill 1128) and one that addresses a shortfall in the Peace Officers Annuity Board and allows for higher monthly benefits (Senate Bill 285).
“The Kemp family will always back the blue,” Kemp said in a statement, “and I’m proud to sign legislation today that ensures they are supported throughout their careers of service and into retirement.”
Kemp also signed Senate Bill 547, another by Strickland, which elevates pimping and pandering to a felony on the first offense rather than a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature.
by Ty Tagami | May 5, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A bipartisan education initiative that seeks to boost reading skills among young public school students in Georgia will go into effect this year after Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law Tuesday, along with a package of other education bills.
The Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026 is a sweeping overhaul of prior legislation that targeted literacy and dyslexia. The new measure, which was a top priority of House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, adds numerous new requirements for curriculum, teacher training and student testing.
It also adds about $70 million to the formula that drives state education budgeting, enough to hire a classroom literacy coach in more than 1,300 schools that have kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.
“This bill is a monumental step in our years-long work to ensure students have the literacy skills they need,” Kemp said before signing House Bill 1193.
The governor signed eight other education bills, including House Bill 1009, which will ban cellphones in public high schools starting in the 2027-28 school year.
The legislation expands a ban passed last year on devices in kindergarten through middle school. Although the lower grades ban does not go into effect until the upcoming school year, many schools have already prohibited personal cellphones ahead of schedule.
Surveys of parents and teachers at many of those schools last fall indicated the bans were popular. Studies also showed academic gains associated with removing the devices.
“The improved outcomes following last year’s bill have been incredible,” Kemp said, “and this commonsense step will help both students and faculty learn in safer, distraction-free environments.”
Among the other bills that Kemp signed are measures that will require public schools to expand access to afterschool programs for pre-kindergarten students enrolled in those schools (House Bill 1123), require closer collaboration between public schools and “completion schools” that offer credit recovery for students at risk of dropping out (House Bill 907), and expand a program allowing retired teachers to fill teacher shortages by returning to the classroom for pay while collecting a pension (Senate Bill 150).
The literacy act was the most expansive measure. Starting this summer, the state will have to identify at least one test to measure whether incoming students are reading on grade level. By fall, state leaders will convene a literacy task force that will vet literacy curricula for use statewide, with the state ensuring at least one option is free to public schools. The methods will be grounded in phonics and what proponents have labeled the “science of reading” and “structured literacy,” with approaches based on decades of research. State universities will also be tasked with overhauling the way they teach future teachers.
Burns said literacy levels affect mental health and health care outcomes, employment and even the prison population.
“Only one in three of our children can read on grade level when they leave the third grade. Unacceptable,” he said. “But I’m hopeful and I’m confident with Governor Kemp’s signature of the Early Literacy Act of 2026 today, we are well on our way to rewriting that narrative.”
by Ty Tagami | May 4, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia taxpayers should begin seeing income tax refunds from the state soon.
Most eligible taxpayers who filed timely state returns for 2024 and 2025 can expect one-time rebates of $250 for individuals, $375 for heads of households and $500 for married couples filing jointly.
The payback is the result of state lawmakers voting unanimously in the House and Senate to pass House Bill 1000 this year. The measure was funded in the amended budget for the current fiscal year, with an estimated price tag of about $1.2 billion.
“Our team is ready to deliver these refunds efficiently and securely to Georgia taxpayers,” Georgia Department of Revenue Commissioner David Burge said in a statement Monday.
The rebate was a priority for Gov. Brian Kemp, who touted it as the fourth under his leadership.
Kemp’s office said Monday that most should see the money “within the coming weeks,” with the governor adding that Georgians “know best how to spend their money, not the government.”
If you know your federally adjusted gross income, you can check your eligibility for the state rebate at https://gtc.dor.ga.gov/_/
More information at https://dor.georgia.gov/georgia-surplus-tax-refund
