NEWS & OPINIONS
Capitol Update – February 7th, 2014
Roads Cleared, News Coverage Still Encountering Snow Related Congestion While last week’s winter weather is in the rear view mirror, the postmortem evaluation of the government’s response continues to receive considerable coverage. The General Assembly, however, has...
State Leaders Push for Employers to Hire Ex-Offenders
Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is pleased to see Governor Nathan Deal and U.S. Attorney Sally Yates (Northern District of Georgia) exercise their influence to encourage business leaders across the state to hire ex-offenders. They are urging employers to give...
Snow Can’t Stop This Crowd for School Choice
By Dr. Danielle LeSure, GCO's Director of Education Policy Amazingly, over 600 students, parents, teachers, and school leaders crowded the Capitol in the middle of a snow storm to cheer for school choice options—charter schools, public school transfers, special needs...
Demand for Choice High: Education Tax Credit Cap Reached in Record 22 Days
Just this past week, Georgia's Tax Credit Scholarship program reached its cap of allowable donation commitments (currently, $58 million) in well under a month. That's the earliest the cap has been reached in the program's history, three and a half months earlier than...
Despite Guidelines, Many Georgia Students Not “College Ready”
Below is a guest blog by Dr. Eric Wearne of Georgia Gwinnett College and formerly with the Governor's Office of Student Achievement. Dr. Wearne currently leads GCO's College & Career Pathways working group. **************************** By: Dr. Eric Wearne What it...
Cage-Busting Leadership: Reforming Public Education from Within
Our team at GCO had the privilege of hosting Dr. Rick Hess this week. On Tuesday, Dr. Hess, who is an education scholar (and prolific writer) with the American Enterprise Institute, spoke at an early morning breakfast attended by a group of about 45 people that...
New Report: Increasing Employment Opportunities for Ex-Offenders
This week, Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) published its first report on ways to improve reentry for ex-offenders in the state. The report focuses on increasing employment opportunities for ex-offenders and offers six recommendations for the State of Georgia to...
Collective Impact “Knowledge Nuggets”
GCO’s Breakthrough Communities initiative is modeled, in part, on the collective impact framework developed by the Strive Partnership in Cincinnati, OH. Over the past few months we have participated in numerous opportunities to learn from Strive, most recently we...
MEDIA MENTIONS
THE CENTER SQUARE – Georgia Education Savings Account debate comes in the midst of tax-credit scholarship court battle
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in a Montana school choice case that could change how public funds are used to support private religious schools in Georgia, while lawmakers are expected to push for more vouchers during this legislative session.......
AJC – Parental paid leave makes inroads in Georgia after years of resistance
Three months of paid leave, maid service and a year of free diapers. Those are among the parental perks the Midtown software firm SalesLoft is using to lure top talent through its doors — and keep them there. SalesLoft is an outlier among companies in Georgia, which...
Georgia earns high marks for career development, but workforce lags, labor commish says
Georgia’s workforce development program has been selected as the best in the South Atlantic Region by business publication, Site Selection Magazine. Gov. Brian Kemp made the announcement a day after Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said workforce numbers are lagging......
Georgia earns high marks for career development, but workforce lags, labor commish says
Georgia’s workforce development program has been selected as the best in the South Atlantic Region by business publication, Site Selection Magazine. Gov. Brian Kemp made the announcement a day after Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said workforce numbers are lagging......
Why should you care about the ex-offender in your community?
Local coalition works to reduce recidivism rates and replace stigmas with compassion When it comes to tackling deep-rooted social issues, no single organization can do it alone. The Greater Gwinnett Reentry Alliance (GGRA) is a coalition of service providers in...
Joyce Mayberry Leads In New Role As Vice President of Family Formation
Joyce Mayberry will be moving into a new role as the Vice President of Family Formation. In this position, Joyce will continue to develop new ways to strengthen families in the communities we serve through our many partners. This move in position reinforces three...
Poll: Half of Georgians don’t want budget cuts
Most Georgians don't want to see state budget cuts, according to a poll released Thursday, but critics say the language used in the survey was overly suggestive. The survey conducted by the left-leaning Georgia Budget & Policy Institute found that about half of...
Georgia recoups about as much money in food stamp fraud as it spends
Georgia officials spend about as much investigating claims of food stamp fraud as they recoup for the state. In the 2019 fiscal year, Georgia investigators spent more than $7.2 million to look into claims of fraud. Investigators found that $8.4 million in food...
