Georgia candidates for governor should make welfare reform a top priority

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Dec 8, 2025

Georgia news, in the news, current events, Georgia happenings, GA happenings

Georgia candidates for governor should make welfare reform a top priority

Buzz Brockway in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Originally published November 25, 2025

In their pitch to voters, the 2026 candidates for Georgia governor have mentioned they are likely to address tax reform, health care, jobs, immigration, child care and housing issues.

But none have mentioned a priority that is not only connected to those issues but has a significant impact on the well-being of millions of Georgia families — welfare reform. And with new federal work requirements set to take effect, policymakers will no longer be able to overlook Georgia’s public assistance programs.

With more than 1 million Georgians struggling to make ends meet, reforms to the safety net should be a top priority for Georgia’s next leader.

These low-income residents turn to Georgia’s safety net programs for help, including Medicaid for health insurance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for food support and Section 8 for housing assistance.

System fails to move people out of poverty

Both Republicans and Democrats agree these programs are a critical support system for disadvantaged communities.

But disagreement tends to emerge over whether welfare truly serves these people — helping them move from reliance on public assistance to independence and a more fulfilling life.

On that measure, welfare is failing — and its shortfall should capture the attention of Georgia’s next governor.

Not only does Georgia’s welfare system — like nearly all states’ — fail at its stated goal of moving people out of poverty, but it also compels recipients to stay dependent, keeping them in a cycle of poverty that so often defines generations of low-income Americans.

Welfare discourages recipients from getting married before having children and from working — troubling given those factors align with two of the three indicators in the Success Sequence, a series of life milestones that research has shown are the keys to happier lives, stable families and upward mobility (the other factor is obtaining a high school degree).

Georgia’s next governor would do well to recognize that the implications of this flawed system extend beyond just welfare recipients. It has a significant impact on the state’s budget and economy.

Read the full article here.

Buzz Brockway is the vice president of public policy at the Georgia Center for Opportunity.

Recasting Lawrenceville as a resilient, connected community

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Sep 30, 2025

Higher numbers of non-working adults are concentrated in Georgia communities struggling with poverty and distress.

Recasting Lawrenceville as a resilient, connected community

Lawrenceville, Georgia, launched a unique partnership called ReCAST (Resiliency in Communities After Stress and Trauma) in 2021 to address poverty and expand opportunities in the city.

Because growing vibrant, resilient communities isn’t ever a solo endeavor, ReCAST coordinators connected with local organizations that could meet the needs of underserved residents where it mattered most—in Lawrenceville’s homes and neighborhoods.

ReCAST engages three dynamic partners to meet its goals. Impact46 provides essential housing services to people experiencing financial hardship. View Point Health offers mental and behavioral health assistance. And the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) helps chronically unemployed or underemployed people prepare for and find rewarding work.

Eric Cochling, GCO’s Chief Program Officer and General Counsel, noted:

“We chose to participate in ReCAST because of the comprehensive approach to addressing community needs envisioned by the initiative. The focus on collaboration among local groups and on helping families develop community relationships reflects GCO’s method of supporting people in need.”

Lawrenceville recently produced a mini-documentary highlighting the third year of ReCAST’s accomplishments. It shows what’s possible when community members unite to open doors to a brighter future for local residents.

Connecting Lawrenceville job seekers with meaningful work

Employment plays a key role in healing communities after stress and trauma. In Gwinnett County, where Lawrenceville is located, GCO’s BETTER WORK program furthers ReCAST’s goals by bringing together local employers, nonprofits, and mentors to help people find fulfilling jobs close to home.

Carolina Pachon, GCO’s BETTER WORK Program Manager in Gwinnett County, explained that the program changes lives by giving people “a sense of hope, stability, and a way forward.”

As part of the BETTER WORK initiative, GCO offers a class called Jobs for Life. The class teaches valuable work skills, but it’s much more than a job training or placement course. It helps participants form the supportive community relationships that can point them in a new direction in life.

During the class, Jobs for Life students learn that meaningful work brings more than just a paycheck. It provides a sense of dignity and purpose that’s essential for human flourishing. A rewarding job also gives workers the confidence and courage to rise out of poverty and build a better future. This resiliency then spreads, revitalizing and strengthening workers’ families and communities as well.

GCO’s programs are particularly impactful in Lawrenceville, where many residents struggle with barriers to opportunity. The city’s poverty rate is 17.2%, well above Gwinnett County’s average rate of 10.5%. The higher poverty rate also correlates with data showing that about 19% of prime-age (25-54) adults in Lawrenceville aren’t currently working.

Sparking change in a young man’s life

Josiah, a young Lawrenceville resident, found Jobs for Life at a point when he most needed his local community to listen and offer support. He was having a hard time finding a sense of purpose in his life.

Carolina described Josiah as shy at first, but during the class, she saw a big transformation in his mindset. Josiah’s self-esteem soared as facilitators and fellow students created a caring community around him. At the end of the program, he gave an inspiring graduation speech emphasizing the significance of the personal connections he’d made. “I’ve come to believe that the purpose of life is to build meaningful relationships with people,” he shared.

Josiah now works in a restaurant and has a passion for cooking. He’s looking for ways to combine this enthusiasm with his desire to serve others. “I’m super excited,” he said.

Josiah offered this valuable advice to others who are struggling: “Let go of uncertainty. If you think you want to do something, do it.”

Making Lawrenceville a true hometown

Communities grow stronger when people invest in the well-being of their neighbors. ReCAST enables Lawrenceville residents to do just that through vital local initiatives.

Support for neighbors who need a hand empowers people like Josiah to take meaningful steps forward, to rise out of poverty, and to help the whole community thrive. The interconnectedness that ReCAST has set in motion makes Lawrenceville a true hometown—a place to belong—for the individuals and families who live there.

National poverty rate fails to Capture the problem of poverty concentration in Georgia and beyond

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Sep 9, 2025

National poverty rate fails to Capture the problem of poverty concentration in Georgia and beyond

PEACHTREE CORNERS, GA—The official poverty rate fell 0.4% to 10.6% in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest report on poverty. The data shows that 35.9 million Americans were living in poverty last year.

These numbers suggest trends at a high level, but they don’t reflect the biggest poverty-related issue, both for the nation and for Georgia: the concentration of poverty in specific neighborhoods. Instead of affecting only certain individuals and families, poverty is enveloping entire communities. This is leading to significant geographic and societal separations among Georgians—not only financially, but also in terms of opportunities for education, work, and family formation.

Randy Hicks, the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s President and CEO, also shared that:

“The national numbers don’t tell us much about poverty from the perspective of the person or community experiencing it. They fail to convey that poverty is much more than a material issue for those who are struggling. Research has shown that people living in neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty lack the essential local network of supportive relationships that’s crucial for helping them thrive and rise out of poverty.”

At a glance: facts on concentrated poverty in Georgia

Georgia’s poverty rate: 13.5%—2.9% above the national average, ranking 38th.
Poverty exceeds the national rate in 133 of Georgia’s 159 counties.
Atlanta’s poverty rate: 18.1% overall; 27.2% among children.
Lawrenceville’s poverty rate: 17.2%, compared with Gwinnett County’s 10.5%.
Southern and central Georgia show especially high concentrations of poverty.

Breaking down Georgia’s poverty landscape

Georgia’s average poverty rate was 13.5% in 2023, per the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or 2.9% higher than the national rate.

This difference may seem slight, but it puts Georgia 38th in the country when it comes to poverty. Poverty rates in 133 of Georgia’s 159 counties also exceed the national rate.

Within counties, concentrations of poverty exist in particular cities. For example, Atlanta, the county seat of Fulton County, has a poverty rate of 18.1%. Poverty is even more concentrated among the city’s children, with 27.2% living in poverty. These numbers are significantly higher than the county’s average poverty rate of 12.6%.

Lawrenceville, in Gwinnett County, also struggles with concentrated poverty at a rate of 17.2%. The county’s average poverty rate is just 10.5%.

In many cases, poverty rates are higher than the state average in central and southern Georgia, suggesting concentrations of poverty in communities in those regions.

Impacts of increasing concentrations of poverty

In neighborhoods with higher poverty levels, residents experience many negative impacts, including limited access to quality education, healthcare, and employment opportunities. They also struggle with increased crime and inadequate housing and living conditions. These factors significantly hinder social and economic mobility and contribute to cycles of poverty that are difficult to escape.

Eric Cochling, the Georgia Center for Opportunity’s Chief Program Officer and General Counsel, noted:

“Poverty has an especially big impact at the local level. It’s a crisis of human well-being. These neighborhoods are often missing the vital community connections and social institutions that help people navigate life’s challenges. As social isolation and disengagement from work increase, people suffer from the loss of purpose and belonging that work and relationships provide.”

About the Georgia Center for Opportunity

The Georgia Center for Opportunity is a nonprofit organization that works to remove barriers to ensure that every person—no matter their race, past mistakes, or the circumstances of their birth—has access to safe communities, a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life. Learn more at foropportunity.org.

###

Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is independent, non-partisan, and solutions-focused. Our team is dedicated to creating opportunities for a quality education, fulfilling work, and a healthy family life for all Georgians. To achieve our mission, we research ways to help remove barriers to opportunity in each of these pathways, promote our solutions to policymakers and the public, and help effective and innovative social enterprises deliver results in their communities.

Send media inquiries to:

Camille WalshGeorgia Center for Opportunitycamillew@foropportunity.org

Non-working adults concentrated in Georgia’s distressed communities

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Sep 2, 2025

Non-working adults concentrated in Georgia’s distressed communities

In 96 of Georgia’s 159 counties, at least a quarter of prime-age (25-54) adults aren’t working, according to the Economic Innovation Group’s recently updated Distressed Communities Index (DCI).

The higher percentage of non-working adults in these counties surpasses the national rate of 20.9%. It also contributes to more Georgians living in distressed communities, where residents face challenges to accessing opportunities that make it possible to break out of poverty. While the numbers of non-working adults vary significantly throughout Georgia, they are a strong reminder that communities and lawmakers must continue to support and empower adults who have the ability to enter the workforce.

Workforce participation a key factor in community well-being

The number of adults not working is one of several statistics the DCI uses to determine where communities fall on the spectrum of well-being and economic opportunity. Other factors include the number of people without a high school diploma or equivalent, the housing vacancy rate, the median household income, and the share of the population below the poverty line.

The latest DCI update shows that 16.8% of Georgians are living in distressed communities (approximately 1.8 million people), and another 18.3% live in “at risk” communities (approximately 2 million people).

In particular, the statewide percentage of prime-age adults who don’t work is 28.1%, which is about 7% above the national rate. Some counties significantly exceed the state average. For example, in Stewart County, just south of Columbus, 63.4% of prime-age adults aren’t working. Morgan County, on the east side of Atlanta, has the lowest percentage of non-working adults at 15.3%.

The numbers of non-working adults correlate with poverty rates in counties across Georgia. While the national share of the population living below the poverty line is 12.4%, Georgia’s overall rate is 13.5%. Stewart County, discussed above, has a poverty rate of 27.8%. In contrast, Morgan County’s poverty rate is just 7.4%.

Use the table below to see how many adults aren’t working in your community.

Number of non-working adults compared to the unemployment rate

It’s important to note that prime-age adults not working is a separate workforce issue from Georgia’s unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force who are actively looking for work but aren’t currently employed. In contrast, non-working adults are people who aren’t employed and are not actively looking for work.

In Georgia, disengagement from work tends to be a bigger issue further outside Atlanta. The map below illustrates that several of the counties surrounding Atlanta have lower percentages of non-working adults, and they typically have unemployment rates close to Georgia’s overall unemployment rate of 3.4%.

Benefits of work beyond the economic aspect

The DCI focuses primarily on economic well-being, showing how it improves as people enter the workforce. But our research has found that there are many other non-financial benefits of work, especially for communities struggling with long-term or generational poverty.

Evidence shows that working provides a stronger sense of self-esteem, dignity, and purpose for employed people.

Work also improves mental and physical health. Working adults often experience less anxiety, fewer symptoms of depression, a decreased risk of suicide, and lower mortality rates. Greater opportunities for upward mobility can enhance these positive effects.

The families of those who work are more stable as well, and the children of working adults tend to have stronger academic performance and future income for themselves.

A thriving workforce also changes entire neighborhoods for the better. More adults working contributes to more positive engagement in the community overall, greater opportunities for job growth, and increases in services and resources. Employment has also been linked to reductions in crime and recidivism.

Helping Georgians experience the benefits of work

It’s crucial that both policymakers and communities throughout Georgia continue their steadfast efforts to encourage non-working adults to enter the workforce. Doing so will lift distressed communities and narrow the economic and social gaps that separate them from their more prosperous neighbors.

As local organizations support and empower people who are considering work, they can also take the opportunity to help those individuals recognize how working can cause a ripple effect of rewarding changes, creating a more hopeful future and a greater quality of life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Image Credit: Canva

What to know about education in Georgia as students go back to school

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Aug 12, 2025

What to know about education in Georgia as students go back to school

As August ushers in a new school year, nearly two million students are headed back to Georgia’s 2,300 public schools. How are Georgia schools doing when it comes to preparing kids for work and life? Here are a few key measures of education in Georgia that parents and communities should know as students return to the classroom.

Learning in Georgia

Results from the latest Georgia Milestones Assessment show students are still struggling with math and reading. In math, 54% of third-graders and 56% of eighth-graders were below proficiency.

In reading, 45% of eighth-graders were at grade level or above. Third-graders are even further behind—only 38% met proficiency in reading. While that number is up from 36% in 2020, it’s still below pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, 42% of third-graders were reading at grade-level or above.

Demographic data from the Milestones Assessment shows Black and Hispanic third-graders are struggling most when it comes to reading.

Reading proficiency by third grade is a crucial milestone for Georgia’s students. Not only is it necessary for learning in later grades, but it’s also an indicator of future stability and economic opportunity. That’s because literacy is closely linked to high school completion and participation in the workforce.

Children who can’t read proficiently by third grade are more likely to drop out of high school, have lower earning potential, and experience higher rates of poverty and unemployment.

The median annual earnings of adults ages 25 to 35 who had not completed high school was $6,300 less than those with a high school diploma.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a 6.2% unemployment rate for people with no high school diploma. It drops to 4.2% for high school graduates and 2.8% for those with an associate’s degree.

The poverty rate for those with no high school diploma is 25.1%, compared to 13.1% for those who have finished high school. In Georgia, where an estimated 1.4 million people live in poverty, 25% would roughly equate to 350,000 people.

A literacy study from the Annie E. Casey Foundation sums up what’s at stake for kids in Georgia and the country if reading proficiency continues to slide:

“The bottom line is that if we don’t get dramatically more children on track as proficient readers, the United States will lose a growing and essential proportion of its human capital to poverty, and the price will be paid not only by individual children and families, but by the entire country.”

Enrollment

Georgia public schools enrolled 1,736,730 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, according to the Georgia Department of Education’s spring 2025 enrollment count. That number marks a drop of 10,964 students from spring 2024.

As Georgia has taken steps to expand education opportunities, more families are embracing new schooling options to find the best education fit for their kids. Homeschooling is on the rise, and over 15,000 families applied to Georgia’s newest school choice program, the Promise Scholarship, between March 2 and June 30.

Students missing school

Georgia, like many states, is battling a crisis of chronic absenteeism. These are students missing 10% or more of school days—a situation that puts kids further behind in academic progress and raises the high school dropout risk.

Chronic absenteeism and its risks tend to be higher among students from low-income families, students of color, and students with disabilities.

In Georgia, absenteeism skyrocketed between 2020 and 2021 in the wake of pandemic school closures. In 2019, 12.1% of students had been chronically missing school. By 2021, that number had jumped to 20.1%. Only recently, in 2025, did the percentage dip below 20% for the first time in four years.

Public school spending

On average, Georgia spends $14,660 on K-12 education per pupil. Pre-kindergarten and K-12 education spending accounts for 38% of the state budget, making it Georgia’s biggest line item. In 2025, the state budget included $13.3 billion for Georgia’s public schools, which was a $1.4 billion increase from 2024.

Despite these amounts, state funding is only a portion of overall revenue for public schools. Local taxes are the biggest source of education dollars, and a small percentage comes from federal funding.

New education laws in place this year

Georgia lawmakers passed a handful of education-related bills in 2025 that will impact schools as of this academic year.

The Georgia Literacy Act stops the use of an instructional reading method called “three-cueuing,” which research has shown to be ineffective. Instead, the law ensures teachers are trained in the science of reading—the evidence-based methods that have proven most successful for teaching reading.

This is a hopeful step for Georgia students, especially in light of results that similar reforms have had in other states. ExcelinEd specifically noted the astonishing transformation in Mississippi: “Mississippi’s fourth-grade Black students have risen to third in the nation in both reading and math, and Hispanic and low-income students have claimed the top spots in reading and second place in math nationwide.”

In addition to addressing literacy, Georgia lawmakers have also taken steps to improve school learning environments. Starting this year, a new cell phone law will put stricter limits on student phone use during school hours. The goal is to cut down on distractions and help students stay engaged in the classroom.

What’s next for education in Georgia?

Georgia’s education measures are more than data. Behind the numbers are real children who will be the next generation of mothers, fathers, business owners, employees, and voters in our state. A quality education is necessary for giving them strong, opportunity-filled futures.

Solutions to boost math and reading proficiency and address chronic absenteeism can strengthen Georgia’s public schools. These are worthwhile steps to support students whose best—and often only—education option is the local public school.

At the same time, Georgia leaders should be doing everything possible to remove financial and social barriers to quality education and empowering students and families to access the school of their choice. Prioritizing more opportunities over limited choices is the best way to prevent a lack of quality education from locking Georgia’s kids and communities into poverty.

Image Credit: Canva