ATLANTA – Legal limits on how Georgia teachers can approach potentially divisive subjects are spreading from elementary and secondary school classrooms to university lecture halls.
Controversial changes to rules for teacher training the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC) adopted in recent months take effect Aug. 15. The new rules delete words including “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion,” and replace them with phrases including “fair access, opportunity, and advancement for all students.”
Those required changes in nomenclature also are tucked into broader legislation the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed last year prohibiting the teaching of “divisive concepts” in Georgia elementary and secondary schools. At the time, legislative Democrats, teachers, and civil rights advocates argued the restrictions would prevent teaching students the full reality of Georgia and U.S. history, both the good and the bad.
The new rules are sowing confusion among teachers, said Sarah Hunt Blackwell, First Amendment policy advocate for the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Educators don’t know what they can and can’t say,” she said. “It’s a continuation of the divisive concepts bill.”
But supporters say the changes were adopted in an effort to avoid confusion.
Brian Sirmans, the commission’s chairman, said the University System of Georgia (USG) asked for the new rules to clarify expectations for incoming teachers. The words the commission voted unanimously to delete from teacher preparation standards have come to mean different things to different people in recent years. which has made interpreting them difficult, Sirmans said he was told by university system officials.
The changes are not aimed at reducing educational opportunities for minority students in Georgia, Sirmans told his commission colleagues before a vote in June.
“We still expect to prepare educators who are well prepared to meet the needs of all of the students they encounter,” he said.
The university system, in a statement issued Thursday, said the new rules came about after the system asked the commission for improvements in literacy education and in what’s required of teacher education programs on how to teach children to read.
“The proposed changes are the result of USG and PSC working together to review and revise rules for teacher preparation based on research-based practices that have been demonstrated to work best in teaching reading,” the statement read. “USG teacher preparation programs will follow these rules as updated and approved by the PSC.”
But critics say Georgia’s new rules are part of a multi-state effort by conservative Republicans aimed at “woke” policies in education, including the “Don’t Say Gay” bill Florida lawmakers passed last year prohibiting discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the schools.
“These rules changes indicate the commission doesn’t see the necessity of teachers being prepared to teach diversity,” Hunt-Blackwell said.
Hunt-Blackwell said the proposed rules changes were moving “under the radar” until the Georgia Coalition for Education Justice – an alliance of students, educators, parents and civil rights advocates – got wind of them. The coalition sent a four-page letter to the commission opposing the changes, held news conferences, and assembled speakers to testify against the rules at commission meetings.
“This has made a huge splash,” Hunt-Blackwell said. “This was the first time in decades people came to testify at their meetings.”
Hunt-Blackwell cited a study released last year by Hanover Research – a think tank that encourages school districts to adopt diversity, equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies – that reported a link between teachers prepared in DEI and a narrowing of academic achievement gaps for students.
“We as educators recognize our student body reflects our communities and state, and the population of our state is more diverse than ever,” said Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators. “Aspiring educators need the course work, information, and resources so they are not overwhelmed by the diversity of their classrooms.”
Morgan said Georgia’s teacher preparation programs have improved significantly in recent years.
“Changing these rules is taking a piece of that away,” she said. “Taking out these words is, in a sense, watering down.”
ATLANTA – The Georgia Ports Authority is off to a strong start in the new fiscal year.
The ports of Savannah and Brunswick handled 447,590 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) in July, the first month of fiscal 2024. That represents a 17% increase over June but was 16% below July of last year, when the ports set a record for the month.
The July numbers were boosted by the reopening of Container Berth 1 at Savannah’s Garden City Terminal.
“The expanded berth and four of the largest ship-to-shore cranes in North America came online last month, providing faster vessel service and an increase of 1.5 million TEUs in annual berth capacity,” said Ed McCarthy, the ports authority’s chief operating officer. “The Port of Savannah can now serve five big ships simultaneously and has eliminated its vessel backlog.”
The authority has ordered eight new ship-to-shore cranes for the Garden City Terminal. The first four began operating last month, with the next four due to go into service by December.
The various improvements will increase the Port of Savannah’s container capacity by about 3.5 million TEUs per year, bringing the total capacity to 10 million TEUs annually by 2026.
Meanwhile, the Georgia ports handled nearly 71,000 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo in July, up 23% over the same month last year. That made July one of the top-five months ever for Ro/Ro.
“The strong showing in finished vehicles last fiscal year has continued into the first month of FY2024,” ports authority President and CEO Griff Lynch said. “The primary driver is increased production supported by better microchip availability.”
ATLANTA – State employees, public school teachers and retirees will pay 5% more for health insurance coverage next year on average.
The Georgia Board of Community Health approved the premium increase Thursday, only the second in the last six years. The increase, which takes effect Jan. 1, will cost enrollees in the State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) $7.25 per month on average for those covered through individual plans and $23.61 a month for families.
The state Department of Community Health held SHBP premiums flat in 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Premiums increased 5% in 2021.
But the costs of health care are on the rise following the COVID pandemic, as enrollees who put off wellness checks during the pandemic – including cancer screenings – are resuming those appointments, SHBP Executive Director Louis Amis told board members Thursday.
”We will see increases in medical inflation as we move forward,” he said.
Amis said the SHBP began covering the full cost of diagnostic mammograms for members last month. Full coverage of colonoscopies and retinal eye exams for diabetes will begin in January, he said.
“These are preventive measures we hope will improve members’ quality of life while managing costs,” he said.
Open enrollment for 2024 will begin Oct. 16 and run through Nov. 3.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) withheld more than $105 million in penalties and fees accumulated in the last decade rather than turning it over to the state treasury, an internal audit has found.
The funds – administrative assessment fees, interest fees and employer penalties – were transferred to the treasury last week, as required by law, state Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson said Thursday. All of the funds were withheld during the administration of former Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, like Thompson, a Republican. Thompson took office at the beginning of January.
“This agency will no longer be shrouded in secrecy and isolation but fully cooperate with fellow state agencies and authorities to identify all fraud and corruption associated with the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and the department,” Thompson said.
“No one is above the law, and I hope everyone connected to this investigation voluntarily and openly cooperates with officials as we seek to put this dark history behind us.”
The 10-page audit, dated Aug. 4, does not allege fraudulent activity on the part of the labor department. Instead, it attributes the withholding of the funds to a legal disagreement.
According to the report, the money was withheld because the agency’s “upper management” was unhappy the department was not being appropriated the full amount of the fees and penalties it had collected and, as a result, withheld the funds intentionally. An in-house lawyer for the labor department believed the agency had a legal right to retain the money, the audit found.
While not alleging criminal wrongdoing, the audit concluded the practice of withholding funds from the state treasury in violation of the Georgia Constitution could encourage corruption.
“When management makes decisions to override the internal controls, policies and procedures which have been placed into operation, opportunities for fraud, waste, abuse and various forms of corruption tend to increase,” State Auditor Greg Griffin wrote. “In this case, our investigation found none of the retained funds had apparently been expended by GDOL.”
The investigation remains ongoing. State and federal agencies involved in the probe include the Georgia attorney general’s office, the U.S. Department of Labor, the state Office of Inspector General, and the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts.
Thompson said Thursday’s announcement marks a significant step toward restoring accountability and transparency at the labor department.
ATLANTA – State tax collections posted a double-digit increase last month compared to July of last year, mostly driven by gasoline and other motor fuels taxes.
Tax receipts in July – the first month of fiscal 2024 – rose by 13.1% over July 2022, the Georgia Department of Revenue reported Thursday. Of $289.3 million in additional revenues, $179.5 million was due to the reinstatement of the state tax on motor fuels.
Gov. Brian Kemp suspended the tax from mid-March of last year through mid-January of this year after inflation hit a 40-year high. Aside from the motor-fuels tax revenue, state tax collections for last month were up 5% over July of last year.
The increase in tax receipts came after four consecutive months of revenue declines. State Economist Jeffrey Dorfman had predicted state tax revenues were likely to drop this year because last year’s huge increase in capital gains tax payments was unlikely to be repeated.
But after a double-digit decline in June, individual income taxes rebounded last month to rise 7.8% over July 2022. Net sales tax revenues were up by 2.1%.
Corporate income tax collections – usually the most volatile of the state’s sources of revenue – increased by a relatively mild 1.6% in July.
Meanwhile, Kemp announced Thursday that Robert “Bob” Buschman will succeed Dorfman as state economist on Sept. 1. Buschman serves as associate director of the Fiscal Research Center at Georgia State University.
ATLANTA – The state’s foster care system was “hoteling” only seven children as of Tuesday night, the head of the Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) said Wednesday.
“Our providers stepped up because they want us to get to zero,” DHS Commissioner Candice Broce told members of a state Senate study committee looking for ways to improve Georgia’s foster care and adoption services. “We couldn’t have done this without them.”
Housing foster children in state offices or hotels came to the General Assembly’s attention during this year’s legislative session. The number of children affected has been on a roller coaster, falling to fewer than 20 last summer – a record low at the time – then soaring to 95 at the end of last month, Broce said.
Since then, the number has plummeted to a new record low of seven Tuesday night, a number that was expected to dip further to just five by Wednesday night, she said.
Lawmakers provided $10 million in the fiscal 2024 state budget to address the hoteling problem. The legislature also passed a bill establishing a uniform process for placing a child in the custody of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) on a “non-emergency basis” or absent “exceptional circumstances.”
Broce said a total of 1,000 to 1,500 foster children have been hoteled for at least one day. About half of those children entered the foster-care system to gain access to services, not because of abuse in the home, she said.
Families often don’t know how to navigate the red tape necessary to apply for services on their own, Broce said.
The DHS is working with DFCS to launch a pilot program in 58 counties to help families gain access to treatment and services.
“We’re certain we’re going to see an immediate improvement,” Broce said.
Samantha Walker, director of reunification and safety for DFCS, said the agency’s primary goal is to reunite children who have been removed from parental custody with their parents, as long as it’s safe to do so.
About 2,500 families were enrolled in the reunification program at the end of June, Walker said. The General Assembly allocated $2.4 million to the program during the last fiscal year.
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, expressed disappointment that only 41% of the children who exited foster care in fiscal 2023 have returned to their homes.
But Dena Crim, a lawyer with the DFCS office in Cobb County, said some children have mental health and behavioral issues that prevent their being returned to their parents.
“Reunification is the goal,” she said. “But there just are some cases where reunification is not possible.”
Broce said while the number of children being hoteled is low for now, it’s always subject to going back up.
“Ultimately, we may get to zero when it comes to hoteling,” she said. “But there are children where we struggle to find the right place.”
The study committee will hold three more meetings this fall before making recommendations to the full Senate to consider during the 2024 legislative session beginning in January.
