U.S. Gross Domestic Product Update

by Erik Randolph | Apr 28, 2022

U.S. Gross Domestic Product Update

U.S. Gross Domestic Product update

U.S. Gross Domestic Product declined at a 1.4% rate in the first quarter of 2022. The numbers surprised economists, who had predicted a 1% gain.The Georgia Center for Opportunity’s (GCO) take: “The tab is coming due for all the reckless stimulus spending during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Erik Randolph, GCO’s director of research. “The declining GDP in the first quarter is the strongest indicator yet that our nation is headed into a recession. Even worse, our trajectory is straight toward stagflation, an environment marked by rampant inflation combined with high unemployment. This will hurt poor and middle-class Americans the most.”

An epidemic of teen depression (and what to do about it)

by David Bass | Apr 27, 2022

An epidemic of teen depression (and what to do about it)

An epidemic of teen depression (and what to do about it)

Key Takeaways:

In the last 10 years, the number of teens identifying as having “experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness” doubled.
School connectedness was a key barometer of how well teens fared mentally.
Teens tend to be more isolated than their peers of past decades, more reliant on social media and smartphones to create a type of “pseudo community.”
GCO’s priorities is to offer relationship enrichment classes in local communities and schools.

Full Report: Click Here

Nothing in life can replace genuine community

The United States has a teen depression problem. And it’s only getting worse.

That assessment is based off a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in April. It found that 44% of teens “experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” in the most recent 12-month period. What’s more, 20% of teens “had seriously considered attempting suicide” and 9% “had attempted suicide.”

What’s truly eye-opening is when you compare these statistics with the reported mental health status of teens a decade ago. In 2009, for example, just 26% of teens reported having consistent feelings of sadness and despair. That means in roughly the last decade, the rate of teens who feel this way has nearly doubled. Rates of teens attempting suicide (from 14% to 19%) or committing suicide (6% to 9%) also increased during that period.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened the problem, as teens have been more isolated than ever. The CDC survey was of 7,700 teens conducted in the first six months of 2021, when the young people were still mired in the worst of the pandemic school shutdowns and social isolation.

“These data echo a cry for help,” said CDC acting principal deputy director Debra Houry in a statement. “The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students’ mental wellbeing.”

Importantly, the CDC report found that school connectedness was a key barometer of how well teens fared mentally. “Youth who felt connected to adults and peers at school were significantly less likely than those who did not to report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” the study concluded.

What’s interesting about this anecdote from the CDC report is the emphasis on community and positive social relationships in maintaining good mental health. Today’s teens tend to be more isolated than their peers of past decades, more reliant on social media and smartphones to create a type of “pseudo community.”

As a recent article in The Atlantic points out, “Compared with their counterparts in the 2000s, today’s teens are less likely to go out with their friends, get their driver’s license, or play youth sports.”

It goes without saying that the pandemic only worsened these problems. What’s more, our nation’s public discourse has continued to deteriorate and today has never been more toxic, in large part fed by a culture drenched in social media.

The Success Sequence provides an outline of how to reverse the cycle of poverty in our communities. GCO uses this as a framework for much of our work.

Again to quote The Atlantic, “Outwardly, teens are growing up slower; but online, they’re growing up faster. The internet exposes teenagers not only to supportive friendships but also to bullying, threats, despairing conversations about mental health, and a slurry of unsolvable global problems—a carnival of negativity. Social media places in every teen’s pocket a quantified battle royal for scarce popularity that can displace hours of sleep and makes many teens, especially girls, feel worse about their body and life. Amplify these existing trends with a global pandemic and an unprecedented period of social isolation, and suddenly, the remarkable rise of teenage sadness doesn’t feel all that mysterious, does it?”

Solutions to this problem are not easy, but we know from our work at the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) that nothing in life can replace genuine community. That community ranges from a good school to a healthy family life to thriving relationships to meaningful work. Teenagers need this just as much as adults — perhaps even more so as they pass through these key years of development.

One of GCO’s priorities is to offer relationship enrichment classes in local communities and schools. That includes students in middle and high school. Joyce Mayberry, vice president of GCO’s family team, “Teaching young people the dynamics of healthy relationships is so important, now more than ever. We’re seeing the devastating results of a loss of meaningful relationships, but it’s not too late to reverse course. All it takes is a direct investment in sharing the tools and approaches that work with young people.”

The bottom line is this: A key way to combat this epidemic of teen depression and poor mental health is through real community, where teens experience relationships face-to-face with friends, family, and broader society. That’s also one of the best ways to break the social media addiction — substituting real relationships for fake ones in a virtual world. Ultimately, it all loops back to community.

The U.S Reaches Highest Unadjusted Monthly Rate of Inflation Since March 1980

by Erik Randolph | Apr 12, 2022

The U.S Reaches Highest Unadjusted Monthly Rate of Inflation Since March 1980

A look at the highest unadjusted monthly rate of inflation

Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that in March the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.3%, not seasonally adjusted. This is the highest unadjusted monthly rate of inflation since March 1980. When annualized, it would equal 17.3%. The seasonally-adjusted monthly increase is 1.2%. The 12-month CPI increase continues to climb, which now stands at 8.5%, not seasonally adjusted.

The Georgia Center for Opportunity’s (GCO) take: “Unsurprising for anyone who paid attention to prices last month, energy prices rose 32% over the last 12 months and food prices rose 8.8%. This is bad for everyone but worse for low-income and impoverished Americans, ” said Erik Randolph, GCO’s director of research. “The U.S. inflation rate reflects not only energy and food price increases, but it is also spreading to more and more industries as businesses are forced to raise prices.”“Also concerning are disturbing signs pointing to a possible economic slowdown, giving credence to those who have been predicting stagflation will return. This crisis may have been initiated by the pandemic, but it was exacerbated when state governments shut down their economies and the federal government pumped unprecedented levels of money into the system to sustain aggregate demand. We’re paying for that now. The only way out of this mess is to refocus on supply-side policies at both the federal and state levels to encourage investments, risk taking, and production. It also requires fiscal restraint in the halls of Congress to reign in deficit spending.”

Randy Hicks on taking a bottom-up strategy to state policy reform | Overton Window Podcast

by Corey Burres | Mar 29, 2022

Randy Hicks on taking a bottom-up strategy to state policy reform | Overton Window Podcast

GCO’s CEO, Randy Hicks speaks with fellow think tank podcast, The Overton Window

Below is an excerpt from the Mackinac Center in Michigan. The Mackinac Center recently invited GCO’s CEO, Randy Hicks to discuss GCO’s take on State Policy Reform on their regular podcast, The Overton Window.

Like many public policy advocates, the people at the Georgia Center for Opportunity research and write about public policy. What makes them different is that they try to bridge the gap between people working at the community level and the people working on state policy. I spoke with their president and CEO Randy Hicks about this for the Overton Window podcast.

“One of the things that sets us apart is that we actually spend a lot of time in the community working on those who we believe could be or are most affected by various public policies that we’re interested in,” Hicks says.

The dynamics between working on state policy and working at the community level are different, and state politics is not very conducive to collaboration.

Georgia Senate Failed to Pass Senate Bill 601, The Georgia Education Freedom Act

by Buzz Brockway | Mar 15, 2022

Georgia Senate Failed to Pass Senate Bill 601, The Georgia Education Freedom Act

The Georgia Senate failed to pass Senate Bill 601, the Georgia Education Freedom Act, by a vote of 20-29.

Today, the Georgia Senate failed to pass Senate Bill 601, the Georgia Education Freedom Act, by a vote of 20-29. The bill would have created Promise Scholarships, offering Georgia families up to $6,000 a year for any approved education expense, such as private school tuition, tutoring, homeschool curriculum, virtual classes, college classes, therapies (for kids with special needs), or technology.

The Georgia Center for Opportunity’s (GCO) take: “What a sad day for kids in Georgia. It’s disappointing that the best interests of Georgia’s schoolchildren have once again fallen prey to politics and special-interest groups,” said Buzz Brockway, vice president of GCO. “While lawmakers will soon return to their relatively safe districts and jobs, tens of thousands of Georgia kids will be left—once again—without access to the options that would let them flourish. Simply put, a vote against S.B. 601 was a vote against the many Georgia families who desperately need help. Particularly as our state emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic where so many students are left behind, it’s unconscionable that we would deny this lifeline to families.”

A recent poll from GeorgiaCAN found that 72% of respondents favor “expanding educational options by allowing a child’s state education dollars to follow that student to the school that best fits their needs, whether that is public, private, magnet, charter, virtual, or homeschool.” Support cut across party lines, with 79% of Republicans in favor, 78% of Independents, and 64% of Democrats.

Promise Scholarships would help adoptive families like mine | Gwinnett Daily Post

by Corey Burres | Mar 15, 2022

Promise Scholarships would help adoptive families like mine | Gwinnett Daily Post

The life of an adoptive parent is tough in normal times, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated those challenges. Even so, our family wouldn’t trade the adoption life for anything.

The trouble is, not everyone sees or acknowledges the struggles that adoptive families face. That means we often don’t have access to the type of resources that would best help our adopted or foster kids. That’s particularly true in the world of education.

Our adopted son, Joshua, has been in upwards of 20 schools during his educational journey. Joshua suffers from dyslexia and dysgraphia. He has experienced trauma, neglect and abuse that have also contributed to his learning challenges.

The local public school simply hasn’t been a great fit for Joshua. The school flagged him for reading challenges in the first grade but never put interventions in place because he didn’t have a parent advocate. Though Joshua was in the third grade when we adopted him, he couldn’t read even at a basic level.

The help Joshua truly needed came from outside the classroom in the form of a local private tutor who specialized in dyslexic learners. That avenue helped Joshua to thrive, growing from a kindergarten to second-grade reading level. Unfortunately, the arrival of the pandemic in spring of 2020 ended his access to that tutoring.

The pandemic also worsened his experience in public school. His academics have become a train wreck, and emotionally he is a shell of his former self. His teachers are doing the best they can, but Joshua needs alternatives. The last straw for us came when the administration at our school determined that Joshua was on a non-college track and gave him schoolwork several grade-levels below his abilities.

That’s when we decided to move him to a homeschool co-op in November. At the time, there were many gaps in his learning, and he was falling behind.

There is an urgency to Joshua’s situation, and the situation of countless other adoptive and foster kids across Georgia. We’re losing more and more time as the years pass. Joshua is a smart, bright child, but he can’t advance the way he needs to right now because he doesn’t have the necessary resources.

The solution we need are Promise Scholarships. Legislation authorizing these accounts has been introduced in the Georgia General Assembly in the form of House Bill 999, House Bill 60 and Senate Bill 601. These bills would give qualifying families $6,000 a year to spend on nonpublic education options.

Unlike other programs, a Promise Scholarship would allow my family to use funds for a variety of educational expenses, not just private school tuition. That includes specialized tutoring for dyslexic learners that would benefit Joshua greatly. Contrary to popular belief, homeschooling is not free. Promise Scholarships would also give a financial lifeline to families like mine to make home education work better for our kids.

It’s time for Georgia to act. Twenty-three other states have recently passed legislation to create or expand educational opportunity programs due to learning losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We support the traditional public school system. For most parents, public schools are the right choice. But we don’t live in a one-size-fits-all reality anymore when it comes to education. School options should be as diverse as the individual needs of students. For many families like mine, alternatives to the public schools are what’s best for students. It’s time to prioritize the needs of our most vulnerable students and pass Promise Scholarships.

Gina McCarn lives in Norcross with her husband Phil and their five children.

Originally Posted in the Gwinnett Daily Post