State Politics DO Matter
By Jacob Stubbs, GCO Legislative Intern While I was a government major as an undergraduate, I had never really encountered anything close to actual politics. This is not necessarily a bad thing, for I was quite interested in the philosophical systems that underlie the...
Georgia Considers Privatization of Child Welfare System
A bill to privatize most of the state's child welfare services was introduced this week by Senator Unterman (R-Buford). The legislation, Senate Bill 350, would require the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) to develop a plan by January of 2015 by which...
School Choice – All Options Aren’t Created Equal
In a recent article addressing school choice alternatives – particularly the Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship program and its $58 million annual cap – some integral details regarding the execution of various school choice alternatives were somewhat blended together. We...
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...
Capitol Update – Snowpocalypse 2014
Should you have any questions or comments about the content of this update, please email Eric Cochling. Weather Dominates Week As the General Assembly meets today for day 14 of the session, the subject dominating the headlines is the two days of utter chaos on...
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...
Building a Framework for College Readiness: A Meeting at Georgia Gwinnett College
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. ********************************* GCO’s college and...
2014 Session Begins
Below is the first edition of our Capitol Update newsletter for 2014. If you'd like to receive future editions in your inbox, sign up here. ************************* 2014 Session Begins By: Eric Cochling, VP of Public Policy Georgia Center for Opportunity Welcome to...
