by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Dec 15, 2015
With the Christmas season upon us, we find ourselves spending more time with family and reminiscing about holiday traditions we started as children. Today there is sufficient evidence to show these traditions play a positive role in families and will have a lasting influence.
Whether the traditions are for the holidays or carried out all year long, traditions provide security, strengthen family relationships, and teach children family values.
In the late 90s when researchers first looked at the importance of traditions, they found that families believed traditions improved the strength of their family. Families recognize the importance of spending quality time with the people they love and how this time fosters family stability.
When families have traditions, they create an environment which enables all family members to feel secure. Traditions give children something to look forward to. It is important for parents to begin traditions that will continue through their child’s early years. Parents provide family unity when they understand and emphasize the importance of family traditions.
When families join together to celebrate milestones, holidays and allow for traditions not only are memories being created, but the emotional health of the family is being improved. When families continue traditions, children have been found to have better emotional health. In a New York Times article, Dr. Steven J. Wolin, a psychiatrist at George Washington University, found that individuals who grew up in a family with traditions, were “more likely to be resilient as an adult.”
Family traditions are more than just joining together once a year at the holidays. They can be carried out all year long, and help families to prosper.
If your family does not have traditions, I encourage you to look for opportunities that can be turned into traditions. It could be having dinner as a family, reading to your child before bed, or visiting your favorite store on a special day every year as my family does. Whatever traditions you choose, know that you are giving your family the most precious gift, your time.
On behalf of everyone here at GCO, I want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.
by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Dec 11, 2015
Earlier this month, GCO hosted a lunch and learn with Dr. Brad Wilcox, one of the nation’s leading sociologists. Dr. Wilcox has devoted his work to understanding family formation and the effect it has on our social structure and economy. His new report, “Strong families, prosperous states: Do healthy families affect the wealth of states?” takes a deep dive into the shifts in marriage and family structures – highlighting the factors which influence the national and states’ economic performance.
Georgia is in the bottom ten states for children living with married parents and at the bottom for college educated individuals. These statistics have a defining negative effect on the state’s economy and correlate with a higher number of Georgians on welfare programs and in the state’s penitentiary system.
At GCO, we understand that strong and healthy marriages have been proven to be better for all family members and lead to increased economic stability. That is why we are working to strengthen families and marriages, through relationship training so that individuals have skills they need to have healthy relationships and a public campaign to increase the value our culture places on marriage.
As Randy Hicks, President of GCO, states “When we’re successful, fewer Georgians will be living in a condition of dependence, a higher percentage will be enjoying earned success and the fruits of their labor, more children will be ready for college and a career, and more families will have the economic and relational resources to thrive.”
For more information about our Family and Community Initiative, visit: https://foropportunity.org/initiatives/family-community/
by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Dec 1, 2015
I hope you will take a few minutes to watch the video below and learn more about Georgia’s founding and how it relates to our work at Georgia Center for Opportunity.
General James Edward Oglethorpe and the original Colonial Trustees founded the colony of Georgia with a commitment to opportunity and human dignity and even adopted the motto “Non sibi sed aliis” – “Not for self, but for others.” The history of Georgia, this land we call home, is rooted in that commitment. It arose out of a vision that was noble, inspired and inspiring.
At Georgia Center for Opportunity, our work is grounded in a similar vision – in our commitment to human dignity and opportunity, to the well-being of our neighbor. And while we want all Georgians to do well, we have focused much of our efforts on what Oglethorpe called “the distressed” – those Georgians whose prospects for social and economic well-being are sparse.
We’re committed to breaking through social and economic barriers so that Georgia children and families have a real chance to prosper. We want to see people moved from dependency to self-sufficiency, which we believe to be the key to living a life that can be rightly described as “flourishing.”
That’s why we work on the issues of education, employment, and family stability. We’ve found, and research shows, that when people are successful in these three areas, they are much more likely to avoid poverty, lead fulfilling lives and realize their full potential.
If you share our commitment to human dignity and opportunity, please consider investing in our mission today.
by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Nov 19, 2015
Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) have dominated the school choice policy conversations as of late. However, many people are still unsure what ESAs truly offer, and some of the terminology can be confusing.
ESAs are similar to an Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) or a Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) in terms of the flexibility they provide but are used to pay for education expenses. A portion of the state’s allocated dollars that are already designated for each child’s public education are instead loaded onto a debit card that parents use to customize their child’s education. This money can be used for any educational resources including tutors, textbooks, private-school, homeschooling curriculum, and virtual learning.
Often these programs are confused with Coverdell Education Savings Accounts which are instead set up with personal money invested into tax-free accounts. These Funds can be used at any eligible educational institution whether that be elementary, secondary, or postsecondary. With a regular ESA, funds are coming from “legislative appropriations, local districts, and the federal government.”
Several states have already implemented ESA programs. For example, Arizona offers ESAs to children with special needs, attending failing public schools, in the foster care system, or children of active-duty military. Nevada offers a universal ESA program, allowing all public school students the opportunity to obtain quality education in the environment that best fits his or her learning needs.
Parents know their child’s learning needs best, so they are best equipped to decide how these resources should be spent to ensure their child obtains a quality education. By having control over the money the state is already spending on their child, parents who were previously limited by income or geography, now have access to more educational options for their children. Parents can keep their child in their school if they’re happy with it, but ESAs give more options to parents who feel that their child’s current school environment isn’t meeting their needs.
You can learn even more about ESAs at esaga.org.
by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Nov 11, 2015
In the late 19th century, Hawaiian sugar farmers struggled to prevent rats from eating their crop. Farmers introduced the Indian Mongoose to the islands to save the harvest.
Unfortunately, mongoose are active during the day, while rats are nocturnal. The mongoose did not quell the rat problem but even now the mongoose severely impact ground-nesting birds, including Hawaii’s state bird, the Nene, and endangered sea turtles. The mongoose is considered an invasive species in Hawaii.
We cannot always predict the outcomes of our decisions in the natural world, and history proves that the same is true in public life. Want the rich to pay more so we can balance the budget? In Maryland, the millionaires moved out. Want to increase the sales tax so people will smoke less? Now cigarettes are smuggled out of lower-tax states into other areas.
As the late Yogi Berra instructed, it’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.
Still, in education, we all want every child’s future to be marked by success and achievement. This blog has explained how education savings accounts can provide Georgia families with opportunities to inspire their children to learn and find quality educational options. With these flexible accounts, families can make multiple decisions about what is best for their child’s education today and save for the future.
However, with every new law, rules and regulations must follow. These rules are important to help prevent fraud and misuse.
Families that use education savings accounts must be protected from fraudulent educators and taxpayers must be protected from mishandling of the accounts. But these rules should be written carefully, otherwise regulation may limit what students can achieve using an account.
In Arizona, where education savings accounts have been available to families since 2011, state policymakers adjusted the law after its enactment to include fraud protection provisions. The Arizona Department of Education must conduct regular account audits to stop misuse so that it does not become widespread.
Yet the department has still not used other measures, such as updating the cards’ technology to prevent a family from buying educational materials at an approved store (such as Walmart) and also purchasing something that has nothing to do with their child’s education, like a TV.
In Florida, lawmakers have enacted strict rules that often require parents using education savings accounts to spend their own money first and then apply for reimbursement from the state. It’s too soon to tell, but Florida may be too cautious with their rules, while Arizona is not cautious enough.
Three lessons are readily available to Georgia lawmakers:
1. Make deposits into education savings accounts quarterly, then audit every quarter. Families using an account should receive deposits every fiscal quarter. If there is misspending, either accidental or purposeful, quarterly audits will prevent the problem from growing.
2. Students should be allowed to use their education savings accounts at educational institutions and for educational products—but nothing beyond these purchases. We have the technology to limit the use of a debit card so that only educational items can be purchased. Policymakers should tell the financial institution distributing the cards that lessons from other states demonstrate this technology is vital in order to protect students and taxpayers.
3. Learn from other states’ mistakes. In healthcare, food stamps, social security and all other government programs, fraud is a fact of life. But that means we must use all the resources available to allow vendors and individuals to report fraud over the phone or online and ask participating educators to help catch misuse. The Goldwater Institute has additional resources available to lawmakers.
Education savings accounts have the potential to help students from different walks of life succeed in their education and beyond. The proper rules must be in place to allow for flexibility while still protecting students and taxpayers. If we are not careful, the rules may stifle innovation and student success. Lessons from states already offering education savings accounts will help to limit unintended consequences.
Jonathan Butcher is education director at the Goldwater Institute and senior Fellow at the Beacon Center of Tennessee.
