Utah

new years resolution, 2024, year in review

Key Points

Research has shown that safe communities, stable relationships, and meaningful education and work are essential to making poverty escapable.
In 2023, we focused on helping communities develop solutions and tools to improve public safety, jobs, education and student achievement, and family formation.
Through these accomplishments in 2023, more communities are being empowered to help people imagine and pursue better futures for themselves.

It seems like everywhere you go these days, people are struggling. You can see it on street corners, in grocery stores, in news headlines, and—most heartbreaking of all—in the eyes of the people who have lost hope.

What they need is opportunity. And that’s exactly what the mission of the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) is built to deliver. As the year draws to a close, let’s take a moment to celebrate the good that has been done to alleviate poverty by removing barriers to opportunity and creating conditions that empower people to flourish and achieve their full potential.

The good news is that research consistently shows that people who experience personal safety, get a good education, find meaningful work, and have healthy, committed relationships only have a 2% chance of falling into poverty. And for those currently living in poverty, these opportunities are the way out to experience freedom and flourishing.

In 2023, GCO celebrated big wins in several key areas that foster community transformation: public safety, jobs, education, and family formation. Here are a few examples of how we’ve helped our neighbors live better and build thriving communities.

Public safety

Thanks to our public safety research, we convened state policymakers and city leaders in Atlanta and Columbus to look at the causes of increasing violence, and provided a proven set of practical solutions for reducing crime—especially in low-income communities. At the national level, our public safety recommendations were well received in Dallas and Louisville, and an opinion piece we co-authored reached 28.7 million people through Newsweek. Soon thereafter, MSN and other media outlets amplified its reach to another 167.1 million Americans.

And given how important it is for people to live in safe communities where they feel comfortable walking around and living their lives, we also created a resource page on our website so that elected officials, law enforcement, and community leaders can easily find the best practices for addressing crime.

Workforce

On the jobs front, our BETTER WORK program continues to help communities build local employment support systems that bring employers, nonprofits, and community partners together to help more Georgians find local jobs. We’ve also joined forces with Lyft to help people get to work and focused on solutions to the benefits cliff challenges that keep many mired in government dependency.

Safety-net reform

This year, GCO remained on the vanguard of educating lawmakers and the public about the need for reforming the safety net. Broadly, we worked to reveal the challenges posed by benefits cliffs, which discourage people from looking for meaningful work and gaining independence. Specifically, we expanded our impact to Utah, Arkansas, and Missouri, in addition to launching a redesigned benefits cliffs website and calculator that adds Utah and West Virginia to the models.

As we educate states and businesses about the benefits cliff problem within the welfare system, we are also developing solutions that equip them to do something about it. This year, we released our first report focused on benefits cliffs solutions, which focused on fixes for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Education

Our efforts to expand educational opportunity have given nearly 84,000 Georgia kids access to the schooling option that best fits their needs. And we led efforts to advance a groundbreaking school choice bill through the state senate. This means there’s strong momentum going into 2024 to expand education options for 500,000 more students stuck in Georgia’s failing schools. We also updated our Education Guide for parents and received the Lilburn Middle School Business Partner Recognition Award for partnering to deliver free relationship education classes for parents and students.

See How The Georgia Center For Opportunity Is Expanding Hope In 2024!

Family

For families, parents continued to graduate from our Strengthening Families Program. And GCO kicked off our Raising Highly Capable Kids (RHCK) program with a vision-casting meeting attended by more than 20 community organizations. By reaching into homes, schools, and faith-based groups, RHCK teaches parents how to raise responsible, caring kids—and turns local communities into nurturing places where healthy families help people escape poverty. An example of how RHCK brings key stakeholders together to foster thriving families is the Lilly Endowment grant that introduced the Parents First Initiative to Lawrenceville.

National and state impact

Finally, GCO had a number of important wins with far-reaching, favorable media coverage on topics we care deeply about. This means that our voice was out there advancing importance conversations about human flourishing. For example, The Wall Street Journal ran our opinion piece calling out pre- and post-COVID crime comparisons for what they really are—an excuse not to blame bad public safety policies. And RealClearPolicy ran an article on our ideas to make safety nets more successful at turning welfare into work support.

Beyond these, GCO’s views were featured in important conversations about Georgia’s position among the leading states for economic freedom and why people remain trapped in poverty when there are so many public assistance programs. And for those concerned about rising crime across the nation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution carried our must-read piece on public safety.

Wrapping up

Of course, these are just a handful of GCO’s successes in 2023. Yet each win adds to the legacy we are building to help our neighbors enjoy meaningful and productive lives in safe, vibrant communities that value work, education, and family. We’re proud of our successes this year, and we look forward to continuing to advance common-sense policy solutions in 2024 that bring greater peace, dignity, and freedom to individuals and families across Georgia and beyond.

Key Points

The decline in two-parent households is a major driver of income inequality and decreased social mobility in the United States.
Two-parent households provide a significant “privilege” for children, leading to better educational and economic outcomes, lower rates of incarceration, and improved chances of achieving the American Dream.
To alleviate poverty and strengthen two-parent households, policy proposals and grassroots cultural changes are needed, along with addressing the importance of fathers in society and promoting stable marriages and families without stigmatizing single parents.

Addressing Income Inequality

Income inequality is on the rise. Social mobility is on the decline. Politicians focus a lot of firepower on these two realities, but they too often ignore a major driver of these trends—one that might surprise you. That’s the drop in the percentage of stable, two-parent households.

At the Georgia Center for Opportunity, our goal is to reduce poverty and encourage human flourishing. Healthy families are a key part of that. What often gets shunted to the side in this discussion, however, is how much family composition matters.

Family Matters

Bravely entering into this political fray is Brookings Institution economist Melissa Kearney with her new book, The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind. Coming from a centrist (if not center-left) worldview, Kearney provides a refreshing and clear-eyed assessment of the powerful role that marriage plays in reducing poverty and bolstering economic well-being for children, adults and the nation as a whole.

Kearney even frames her book title in terms progressives better understand by using the term “privilege”—precisely what two-parent households afford children across a spectrum of metrics ranging from educational outcomes to behavioral tendencies, rates of incarceration and the likelihood of achieving the American Dream.

Here, Kearney asserts, “The decline in the share of US children living in a two-parent family over the past 40 years has not been good—for children, for families, or for the United States.”

Going further, she says, “Based on the overwhelming evidence at hand, I can say with the utmost confidence that the decline in marriage and the corresponding rise in the share of children being raised in one-parent homes has contributed to the economic insecurity of American families, has widened the gap in opportunities and outcomes for children from different backgrounds, and today poses economic and social challenges that we cannot afford to ignore—but may not be able to reverse.”

Of course, nobody seeks to stigmatize or deny the heroic efforts that loving and dedicated single parents sacrificially pour out to raise their children in difficult circumstances. Indeed, Kearney argues for strengthening the safety net for all families—regardless of structure.

But as she shows, the data can’t be so easily dismissed by those who resist policy discussions involving family formation distinctions.

The data backs it all up

Consider: 2019 US Census statistics reveal that families headed by a single mother were five times more likely to live in poverty than families headed by a married couple, while families headed by a single father were nearly twice as likely to live in poverty.

Further, research shows that 40% of Millennials who grew up in two-parent homes graduated from college by their mid-20s, compared to 17% for Millennials from non-intact homes. Moreover, 77% of Millennials who grew up with the two-parent privilege attained a middle-class or higher lifestyle by their mid-30s, compared to 57% from non-intact families.

And then there are many studies from Utah, where—more than any other state—marriage and two-parent households are encouraged. Indeed, Utah ranks at the top of economic performance—including GDP growth, favorable business climate, work environment and high rates of economic mobility. And Utahns experience lower child poverty and criminality rates, while enjoying enviable levels of emotional and physical wellbeing, healthy behaviors, life evaluation, student educational performance, and median family income.

Taken together, these data suggest that stable, intact, two-parent marriages lay the foundation for strong families, which in turn create thriving communities of men, women and children.

To alleviate poverty by strengthening two-parent households, Kearney suggests several policy proposals:

Work to restore and foster a norm of two-parent homes for children
Work to improve the economic position of men without a college level of education so they are more reliable marriage partners and fathers
Scale up government and community programs that show promise in strengthening families and improving outcomes for parents and children from disadvantaged backgrounds
Have a stronger safety net for families, regardless of family structure

Stronger Families Create Thriving Communities

Our vision is one where everyone has the support that comes from healthy thriving relationships and family.

Stronger Families Create Thriving Communities

Our vision is one where everyone has the support that comes from healthy thriving relationships and family.

The Policy Prescription

In offering these policy prescriptions, however, she adds that economics and government intervention can only do so much. There must also be grassroots, cultural change at the neighborhood and community levels. That’s why marriage enrichment and parenting classes like Raising Highly Capable Kids are crucial to reducing poverty.

Commendably, Kearney addresses a related—and also politically sensitive—topic: The important role that fathers play in society. She writes, “The absence of a father from a child’s home appears to have direct effects on children’s outcomes—and not only because of the loss of parental income. Nonfinancial engagement by a father has been found to have beneficial effects on children’s outcomes.”

Indeed, a father’s presence in the home is particularly important for boys. As Kearney notes, “Boys and young men are faring worse than girls and young women on a host of behavioral, educational, and economic dimensions. This gender gap in outcomes has been linked to the heightened disadvantage boys face when growing up without a father figure in their home.”

Of course, this creates a vicious cycle: Boys growing up without their fathers have a higher likelihood of themselves falling into traps of poverty: “The more boys struggle and fall behind, the less prepared they will be as adults to be reliable economic providers as husbands and dads,” Kearney writes.

Here, she points to our country’s crisis of masculinity and how declining labor force participation rates by prime-age men contribute to the marriage problem. Recent cultural shifts have “stripped many men of their traditional role as breadwinner for the family and, in simple terms, made them less desirable marriage partners,” she writes.

Clearly, the challenge is how to promote stable marriages and families when males increasingly remain in perpetual adolescence and fail to assume adult responsibilities that lead to success in work, marriage, and family.

Where do we go from here?

So how can we build more two-parent homes? Certainly investing more in vocational education and apprenticeships for men will help—as will implementing criminal justice reform and addressing the pandemic of untreated mental illness and opioid addiction among men.

Beyond these, we should expand school choice so that impoverished children stuck in failing public school districts have an opportunity to achieve a good education. And we need to eliminate marriage penalties in programs like Medicaid and public housing that punish marriage and encourage single-parenthood.

But perhaps most of all we need to have a frank national discussion about the importance of two-parent families “without coming across as shaming or blaming single mothers,” as Kearney writes. “By being honest about the benefits that a two-parent family home confers to children, we can break the pattern in which social agnosticism treats all households as the same in terms of the benefits they deliver children.”

Best practices for reducing crime can empower California to build safer communities through policy.

Key Points

Government shutdowns occur when Congress doesn’t pass a set of bills that give federal agencies and services the approval and funding necessary to operate.
Government shutdowns and political wrangling distract from the real issues facing the poor and delay much-needed safety net reforms that would help people move out of government dependency.
There are bipartisan solutions Congress can act on to better serve low-income and marginalized communities.

Government shutdowns occur when Congress doesn’t pass a set of bills that give federal agencies and services the necessary funding to operate. Without this approval, agencies must pause all non-essential activity until Congress takes action. Government shutdowns often go hand-in-hand with political conflicts among federal leaders. When this dynamic takes hold in D.C., government shutdowns become, at best, a distraction from the real issues facing the poor and, at worst, a roadblock to helping people achieve stability and economic opportunity.

What happens during a government shutdown?

During a government shutdown, several disruptions happen:

Nutrition programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), are the most at-risk from a government shutdown.

Benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and most other need-based programs still go out, but shutdowns often lead to furloughs or reduced staffing levels in federal agencies that administer these programs. As a result, beneficiaries may experience longer processing times for applications, appeals, and inquiries.

Many federal employees are temporarily out of a job. They are instructed not to show up to work and aren’t paid during the shutdown window, though they typically receive back-pay once a shutdown ends.

Essential government employees, such as members of the military, air traffic controllers, and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, are expected to keep working, usually without pay.

Americans may experience delays in government-administered processes, such as permits and passports.

Government shutdowns and safety net programs

For many Americans who currently need assistance from programs like SNAP, WIC, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Social Security, a government shutdown can be a fearful prospect. The worry of losing essential benefits and facing greater financial hardship can take a significant toll on individuals and families in low-income households and communities.

Impact of a shutdown on SNAP benefits

SNAP, the nation’s second largest safety net program, helps eligible families buy food. Around 42 million Americans currently receive this vital support. The federal government pays for SNAP benefits, and funds are delivered to the states for distribution to the individuals and families who need them.

During a government shutdown, there are typically enough funds available to provide SNAP benefits for about a month. Few shutdowns in American history have gone on that long, so recipients usually don’t notice any change in financial assistance.

But on November 1, 2025, the current government shutdown surpassed the one-month point, and SNAP recipients didn’t receive any benefits for the coming month. To address this critical situation, the federal government will use its emergency funds to provide SNAP support. Unfortunately, this will only be a short-term solution, and it isn’t likely to cover all the SNAP assistance the government would usually distribute during the month.

It’s important to note that a pause in SNAP benefits during a government shutdown hurts not only individuals and families, but also local economies. Food stamps help support the businesses where people spend them, like grocery stores and farmers markets. Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates about $1.54 in economic activity, but this grinds to a halt when the government doesn’t fund this essential public assistance.

Impact of a shutdown on WIC benefits

WIC provides families with free healthy foods, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, and referrals to other services. Almost 7 million pregnant women, new moms, and children up to age 5 currently depend on WIC support.

The 2025 shutdown has put WIC benefits in jeopardy, and federal funding for this crucial assistance becomes more uncertain the longer the government remains closed. In the short term, federal officials are using revenues from other sources to keep the program running.

Government shutdowns can push people struggling with hardships further below the poverty line. Recent data shows that a pause in crucial welfare assistance would cause an additional 2.9 million Americans to fall into poverty in late 2025. This would also put future generations at risk of becoming trapped in long-term cycles of poverty.

During a government shutdown, community support for our neighbors is critical. Churches, food banks, charities, and other nonprofit organizations can increase their efforts to provide food to people in need to help them through the difficult time, and community members can provide urgently needed donations.

There is a solution Congress can act on to create a better pathway out of poverty

A government shutdown may not cut off food stamps, WIC, Social Security, or other safety net benefits immediately. However, low-income and vulnerable communities still suffer.

In the short term, lawmakers need to better serve people living on the margins by being willing to compromise and end the government shutdown. This will make it less likely that the struggles of low-income Americans get lost in political conflicts.

In the longer term, the shutdown is a reminder that we need a better safety net system—one that encourages economic opportunity and stability instead of leaving millions of Americans exposed to the ups and downs of federal government turmoil. By ending the shutdown, Congress could take up the more important priority of One Door reform.

In the current welfare system, recipients are forced to navigate multiple, disconnected programs, eligibility requirements, and caseworkers—a maze that becomes a trap for welfare dependence instead of a secure path out of poverty.

The One Door Model makes it possible for the safety net to be a bridge rather than a barrier to opportunity. It does away with the disconnected programs and integrates human services with work support so beneficiaries who are capable of working have a clear, supportive, and accessible path to personal well-being and meaningful jobs.

The One Door Model provides welfare recipients with a greater sense of direction, dignity, and purpose, empowering people to become self-sufficient and enabling them to truly flourish.

FAQs about the government shutdown

Will SNAP benefits be paid in November 2025?

The federal government plans to use its emergency funds to provide SNAP benefits in November 2025. Unfortunately, these funds aren’t likely to cover all the SNAP assistance the government would usually distribute during the month. The payments will also be delayed because states will have to adjust their automated systems to distribute reduced amounts.

Will WIC benefits be paid in November 2025?

The federal government has currently made funds available to pay WIC benefits for the first few weeks of November 2025.

Are Head Start programs affected by the shutdown?

Head Start programs provide early learning, health, and well-being services to families with young children. The programs receive funding from the federal government, and many are closing due to the shutdown. Some are staying open by providing limited services, reducing staff, or shortening operating hours.

Where can Georgia families go for food assistance?

Foodfinder.us is a free, nonprofit website and mobile app that helps people find nearby food pantries and free food programs. Users can easily search for local support by entering their zip code.
Feeding Georgia is a statewide network of food banks that collaborates to end hunger in Georgia. Its website offers helpful links to local food resources.

Where can Georgians get help to find work quickly?

The Georgia Center for Opportunity’s BETTER WORK program partners with employers and local resources throughout Gwinnett County and the city of Columbus to connect people with training and support services and to help them find meaningful work.

How are government shutdowns related to welfare benefits cliffs?

A benefits cliff occurs when an individual, family, or household loses more in benefits from government assistance programs than it gains from additional earned income. When a person experiences a benefits cliff, they are thrust into serious difficulties: losing housing, going hungry, fearing that their children will be taken by Child Protective Services, and more. A government shutdown can have similar effects to benefits cliffs because it can cause big delays or cuts to essential safety net program payments. This creates significant financial hardship for people who are struggling and can push them deeper into poverty.

What are the political games in D.C. costing communities?

Americans deserve better than having their day-to-day well-being threatened by political dynamics in D.C. Shutdowns result when federal leaders devote energy to political distractions instead of bipartisan opportunities to fix our broken safety net system. This costs millions of people the chance for a more fulfilled, self-sufficient life.

We need a safety net system that gives people hope and independence from D.C. To make that possible, the current government shutdown needs to end so legislators can get back to the work of serving people—truly putting citizens’ needs first and creating policies that allow Americans to escape poverty and flourish.

Key Points

Utah’s economic success and high levels of happiness are attributed to the quantity of marriages and cohabiting married parents, leading to strong family structures and economic mobility.
The “Family Impact Perspective” proposed by Brad Wilcox offers guidelines to strengthen marriages, encourage desired parenthood, improve family affordability, and enhance family relationships in pursuit of economic success and well-being.
Georgia, facing economic challenges and family-related issues, can learn from Utah’s success and consider implementing similar policies and projects to foster a “Georgia Family Miracle” and improve economic mobility rates.

No matter how you spin it, Utah has enjoyed great success in recent years. The Beehive State tops national charts economically—with particular success in economic mobility— as well as scoring highly in happiness, evaluated through emotional health ratings.

Sociologist Brad Wilcox attributes these achievements to the quantity of marriages in the state. In Utah, adults ages 18-55 are 10% more likely to be married than other Americans (55% versus the national average of 45%) and children are 7% more likely to grow up with cohabiting married parents than their peers in other states (82% versus the national average of 75%).

What’s more, Utah enjoys some of the greatest economic mobility in the country. And according to numerous economists, this is probably due to young people living in married families. Wilcox writes that the poor children in the Salt Lake area whose lot is improving “are much more likely to be raised in a two-parent family and to be surrounded by peers from two-parent families than poor kids in other metro areas.”

Yet Utah’s economic success has also attracted many newcomers to the state, who have driven the marriage and fertility rates down, as Wilcox explains. Across the state’s counties, from Salt Lake City to rural areas to Utah County, which boasts some of the highest population and birth rate growth, immigration has inflated population counts and decreased fertility. While the state still leads the country in fertility and marriage, there are indeed “clouds on the horizon” as national cultural norms descend upon the state.

The “Utah Family Miracle” might be seeing its last days.

Where do we go from here?

In a recent report with the Sutherland Institute, Wilcox promotes a “Family Impact Perspective” through which all “states laws, regulations and initiatives” might be considered. He writes that this framework would assist in the pursuit of the following targets:

Strengthen marriage—measured in terms of both the rate and stability of marriage
Encourage couples to have the children they wish to have
Make family life affordable for ordinary working families
Enable husbands, wives, children, and especially parents to maximize their time with their families
Increase the quality of family relationships by increasing positive and reducing negative (e.g., domestic violence) interactions in families.

This perspective is flexible to the needs of the state and offers guidelines and signs of success for legislators and the families that they serve.

Georgia, facing economic challenges and family-related issues, can learn from Utah’s success and consider implementing similar policies and projects to foster a “Georgia Family Miracle” and improve economic mobility rates.

Sutherland and Wilcox’s report culminates in five policy recommendations that solidify the Family Impact Perspective. Utah already enjoys ranking as the best state in the country for families, but even there these productive steps are under consideration.

State reports should consider family structure when they track other socioeconomic factors.
The “Success Sequence” proposed by the Institute for Family Studies should be worked into public school curricula and premarital education.
States should provide families with young children a monthly allowance to “empower parents in their capacity to make choices about how to best care for their children.”
Address families’ cost of living, considering housing, schooling, and food as issues integral to family decisions.
Create a state commission on men and boys, as men everywhere increasingly fall by the wayside.

These ideas address the biggest issues facing families in a holistic, productive manner. Georgia would do well to consider implementing similar policies and undertaking such projects.

What’s in it for Georgia?

A Georgia Family Miracle.

The state has much to gain by considering what it would take to improve economic mobility rates until they rival Utah’s. Currently, Georgia lags in 12th economically and 24th for fiscal stability, and the economic mobility rate has drawn critical attention for a decade. While many factors feed into economic mobility, leading Georgians ought to encourage study into the impact of family structure and costs of living on the prospects of the youngest citizens.

Georgia’s immigration rates are much lower than Utah’s (-2.5%, whereas 8.4% of Utah’s population are immigrants). This means Georgia might enjoy greater cultural stability, which should not be taken for granted. Rather, Georgia’s leaders ought to double down in their service to the constituency’s families and help them build happier homes where they have better relationships.

By multiple measurements, marriage in Georgia is far from the worst in the country, but there is still much work to be done if Georgians are to have the families and futures that they want. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that, in 2021, Georgia’s marriage rate was only 60% of Utah’s (at rates of 5.5% and 9.1%, respectively). Demographers have reported for years that Georgia’s divorce rate is among the highest in the U.S., and a 2020 study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Georgia Family Connection Partnership found that 33.5% of Georgia’s kids live in single-parent households—not accounting for cohabiting, unmarried parents.

The easiest ways to increase familial connection include reducing tech use in the home, making family life more affordable with an allowance, and strengthening existing marriages through close review of couple’s needs, especially men struggling to be dependable citizens and fathers.

David

Talk To An Expert

About The Author

David Bass

Press Manager

David Bass is a journalist and communications professional with nearly two decades of experience in the world of PR, marketing, and publications.

Man sitting with his hands folded

Key Points

Indiana passed a scholarship program that will allow any family below 400% of the amount required to qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program to access education scholarships.
South Carolina expanded their scholarship program with similar guidelines to those in Indiana.
Georgia failed to pass a transformative education scholarship program that would have positively impacted the lowest performing communities in the state.

The year isn’t even halfway over, and six states have already enacted laws that create universal educational access for all students in 2023.

In total, Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, Florida, and now South Carolina and Indiana have enacted either universal—or nearly universal—educational opportunity this year. That’s on top of Arizona and West Virginia, which did so in 2021 or 2022.

Each state has its own version of a scholarship or educational savings account that the state funds for children’s needs outside of traditional public school. For example, these types of accounts send a portion of each student’s public school dollars to allow the child to attend a private school of their family’s choice. In some cases, families who choose to homeschool their children can use the funds for educational expenses.

Indiana

Indiana is the most recent state to join that list. That state’s scholarship program will now be available to any family below 400% of the amount required to qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. That translates to a salary of around $222,000 a year for a family of four.

Previously, requirements were in place that further limited the program, such as it only being open to families with students previously enrolled in a public school or to children in the foster care system. Under the new law, only an estimated 3.5% of Indiana’s families won’t qualify for this option.

The Georgia Center for Opportunity led a state-wide campaign to educate parents and legislators on the positive impact that choice brings to public education.

South Carolina

Meanwhile, South Carolina governor Henry McMaster recently signed a bill into law that eventually expands that state’s scholarship program to families at or below 200% of F&R priced lunch as well. The program is more limited in scope than Indiana’s. It will only be available to 5,000 students the first year, 10,000 the second year, and 15,000 students the third year.

South Carolina’s program allows for the establishment of Educational Scholarship Trust Funds. Funds deposited in these accounts can be used not only for expanded school choice, but may also be used for special needs therapies, such as physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. Tutors and transportation may also be included for families caring for special needs students.

So, what happened in Georgia?

If the Georgia Legislative Session had passed Senate Bill 233, also known as the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act, it would have put $6,500 per student back into parents’ pockets so they could fund the best educational approaches for their children. The funds would have been eligible for use as private school tuition and public school alternatives, such as homeschooling.

According to the Georgia Department of Education, families who qualified would have had students enrolled into the lower 25% of schools in Georgia. This amounted to roughly 400,000 students.

SB 233 was a strong bill, passing the Senate with unanimous Republican support and going on to the House. Despite receiving no support from Senate Democrats, it’s excellent news that the bill made it so far through legislative proceedings.

The House vote proved to be tougher, with bipartisan representatives voting against it. Rep. Mesha Mainor of Atlanta was the lone Democrat in the House to vote in favor. On its final day of session, SB 233 was only six votes short of the 91 it needed to pass.

The good news is that the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act is eligible for reconsideration during the 2024 legislative session.

Looking to what’s next

Public schools are not the problem. We love and support public schools—they will remain the right and best choice for the vast majority of Georgia families. But we can love, support, and move public schools forward while expanding education into new areas.

Public education is a foundational and vital part of the success of American society, but an increasing number of families are looking toward alternatives—and their choices are just as valid. We must work to deliver quality education to all students, which means finding ways to support families who take a different schooling path. While many will access their education through public schools, not all kids are a perfect fit for that system, and they cannot be left behind.

2022
annual report

Curious about our projects. progress, and achievements over the past year? The Georgia Center for Opportunity 2022 Annual Report is now available online. This year-in-review consolidates the most crucial information about where we’ve been and where we’re headed, all in one place.

We’re incredibly proud of the strides we’ve made for Georgia families in 2022. The GCO team stepped into 2022 on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, ready to lead the charge toward helping our neighbors thrive in education, work, and at home. In today’s climate, the need to alleviate suffering in our communities has never been more urgent.

Here at GCO, we believe that change at the community level is the most important of all. While state and federal policies can drive positive results, nothing is as personally impactful as change close to home. When our friends, families, and neighbors build better lives for themselves, those stories don’t just impact the individuals involved. They reverberate into the greater community.

Throughout 2022, we remained laser focused on local change. Here’s how we made an impact:

We supported 715 families across the state.
Our team hosted 13 workshops and trainings, with 234 in-person attendees and 266 virtual attendees.
Through the BETTER WORK program, we continued to help Georgia’s most vulnerable individuals find self-supporting, meaningful work.
Our Gwinnett County and Columbus BETTER WORK chapters expanded to 400 new job-seekers, 95 workplace partners, and 42 mentors.
GCO added Missouri and Utah to the BenefitsCliffs.org program, fueling our ongoing goal to encourage employment by overhauling the social safety net—bringing the overall initiative to 12 states (one-third of the nation’s population).
Our team successfully advocated for a bill during the Georgia General Assembly’s 2022 session that expands the state’s tuition tax credit scholarship by $20 million—giving over 4,000 additional students access to the program.
We attracted over 500 individuals to be a part of our relationship enrichment program, offering the classes across seven nonprofit partner agencies and seven schools.
Through assessments administered by the University of Georgia, we showed that our programs improve behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge, which are all top indicators of future relational wellbeing.
GCO’s Promise Scholarship campaign drove 1,050 messages and 7,573 calls to lawmakers across 10 districts.

In addition to our impact, we garnered some notable achievements:

Randy Hicks, GCO president and CEO, was named the 2022 recipient of State Policy Network’s Thomas A. Roe Award.
The GCO team received the State Policy Network’s Bob Williams Award for Outstanding Policy Achievement.
GCO was included in Atlas Network’s “Top 10 to Watch in 2022”

“While state and federal policies can drive positive results, nothing is as personally impactful as change close to home.”

“While state and federal policies can drive positive results, nothing is as personally impactful as change close to home.”

Throughout our report, we share stories of triumph: marriages revitalized, able-bodied workers gainfully employed, benefits cliffs overcome, and educational opportunities that honor students’ individual needs. You’ll get a glimpse of not only our state and local impact, but of some of the individual lives GCO’s work touched over the past year. These are just a few of our successes, and we’re thrilled to drive more transformation in Georgia over the coming year.

We’re proud of the legacy we’re helping to build for families and individuals in Georgia. Through stronger jobs, educational opportunities, and families, we’re bringing hope and positive charge to the most vulnerable people in our state. Most importantly, we wouldn’t be here without your support.

Here’s to an impactful 2023.

Read our 2022 annual report here.

student struggling with school work.

Key Points

Arkansas is the fourth state in the U.S. to legislate universal educational opportunity — the others are Arizona, Utah, and Iowa.
Georgia Senate passed the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act (SB 233) in a 33-23 vote. It will go on to the House next, where it has traditionally faced more opposition.
Georgia Senate passed the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act (SB 233) in a 33-23 vote. It will go on to the House next, where it has traditionally faced more opposition.

Arkansas recently joined a growing list of states that have approved Education Scholarship Accounts, empowering parents to make the best decisions for their child’s unique educational needs.

The accounts, called Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs), will contain around $6,600 in funds per student every year. Families can then use the available funds to pay for education-related fees, including tuition, tutoring, textbooks, therapies, and other costs which have been approved by the state.

It will take three years to fully phase in the act. By the end of the third year, all students in Arkansas will be eligible for EFAs.

The creation of these accounts makes Arkansas the fourth state in the U.S. to legislate universal educational opportunity — the others are Arizona, Utah, and Iowa.

Now, Georgia could be next.

Last week, the Georgia Senate passed the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act (SB 233) in a 33-23 vote. It will go on to the House next, where it has traditionally faced more opposition.

If enacted into law, the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act would fund $6,000 per student every school year. Promise Scholarships would give families the financial freedom to select an educational environment that best fits their child’s needs. A wide range of educational expenses would be approved under the act, including tutoring, virtual classes, private school tuition, homeschool curriculum, special needs therapies, technology, college courses, and more.

In the wake of the pandemic, parents nationwide are demanding more options for their children’s education. Learning loss is one of many major crises to arise from nationwide lockdowns. At Georgia Center for Opportunity, we believe it is the state’s responsibility to help reverse that loss.

Families across the state need access to more opportunities now. With Promise Scholarships, Georgia’s children will have more opportunities to excel at school. Every child deserves empowerment through a high-quality education that works best for him or her. We believe that Georgia should lend support to every educational option for its students, including alternatives like homeschooling and virtual learning.

Promise Scholarships would give families the financial freedom to select an educational environment that best fits their child’s needs.

Over the past few years, more and more families have embraced alternatives to public education. While the majority of students across Georgia still attend public schools (and will likely continue to in the future), a growing minority of families are choosing differently. And, as the nation collectively faced an unprecedented pandemic, parents began to realize how many options were available to them outside the traditional school system.

Traditionally, families who select private schools or opt to homeschool receive no financial support to do so. Despite that choice, their tax dollars continue to fund public schools whose services they do not use.

Parents with special needs children struggle to find school systems that will accommodate their children’s needs. Often, they find that one facility lacks all the important resources they need so their children can thrive at school. While they could opt to build a hybrid program for their children, which might include home healthcare or virtual classes, those alternatives are cost-prohibitive.

Ultimately, we believe that tax dollars should follow each child, meeting their unique needs along the way. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to education. Public, private, home, and virtual education are of equal value, and as each family decides what is best for their children, Georgia should be willing to meet them where they are.

As the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act moves to the House, we urge you to contact your local representative to advocate for this bill. Our children can’t wait any longer for educational support that fits their individual needs and allows them to thrive. The future is depending on us.

In The News

OpEd Written by Corey Burres, VP of Communication

Unedited Title: Public Schools Are At the Heart of School Choice

As states like Utah and Iowa pass sweeping school choice legislation, it is important to understand no one is trying to defund public schools. The millions of American parents pleading with legislators across the country to open up educational options for their kids are not secretly hoping public schools go away. It’s a partisan myth that is dividing us on education and resulting in burnout and frustration for everyone.

I grew up riding the big yellow bus to my local public school. My kids spent most of their education in public schools. I’m thankful for public schools and the teachers who work so hard to educate and enlighten our children.

Public schools are immeasurably valuable.

It’s my respect for that value that makes me question why so many have politicized fear around educational concepts like school choice, charter schools and scholarship programs. We must face the fact that our education system is overwhelmed. There is no possible way an area public school can meet the diverse needs of every single student.

Yet that is exactly what many expect of them. We expect that public schools will be able to address the learning needs of kids with a wide array of abilities, physical and emotional needs and unique home and personal challenges. You can understand why teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

Imagine going to work with a lesson plan and knowing that five of your students will struggle because they have a diagnosed or undiagnosed learning disability, another five will have ADHD and struggle to focus and another five will be facing home issues and food insecurity. A teacher’s lesson plan is expected to get each of these different students to the same level of success. Add in that we are asking teachers to instruct or guide moral standards and you have a recipe for frustration and burnout.

But it’s not just about teachers. It’s about the kids getting a quality education. Let me be clear, quality education is not an input solely determined by great teaching but an output of what is learned. You can have the greatest teacher, but if the child isn’t learning, they aren’t receiving a quality education. Many years ago, I worked on filming a documentary on education called “Flunked.”

Then, like now, the United States was falling behind internationally, and we wanted to see if there were any schools doing something different. We traveled up and down the West Coast talking with schools that served low-income, inner-city students, schools in rural areas and others that focused on performing arts. As a young parent, it was fascinating and inspiring to see what was available.

Sadly, as I returned home, I faced a different reality for my family. The teacher assigned to my then-5-year-old daughter told my wife and I that our daughter was likely to be bored and not challenged. The local school simply couldn’t provide what she needed, and we were forced to find alternatives.

Thankfully, we had family and others who helped us collect the money necessary to get her into an option that would challenge her. Eventually, we moved and were able to get her back into a public school where she thrived.

But what about the many kids and parents who have no opportunity because they can’t afford it or live in the wrong district? Is quality education only promised to those who can pay up or live in the right ZIP code?

We are stressing public schools by expecting them to be all things to all kids and we are failing to deliver quality education. Even as school choice options become more mainstream across the country, we’re still clinging to the fear of public schools going away. Even the fear that public schools will suddenly be defunded is a myth with per-student funding actually going up over the last decade despite more options being available.

We need to look to innovation in education and stop fearing change. Keep public schools at the center while decreasing the stress on the system by creating alternatives. After all, what we all want is a great education for our kids.

Originally posted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

kids hands raised.

Key Points

Georgia’s recent growth could be halted because it’s falling behind other states who are increasingly offering families more and more choices in K-12 education.
Georgia lawmakers have another chance this year at passing ESAs.
Georgia’s public schools are serving most families well — and public schools are the best option for most families in our state. But for some families, traditional public schools aren’t the best fit for their child’s needs.

Georgia is one of the fastest growing states in the country, and for good reason. But we imperil our ongoing growth if we fail to offer families the opportunity to choose a world-class education for their children. That means giving all students access to the right school for them — whether that’s a traditional public school, a public charter school, a private school, or a homeschool.

By falling short on this goal, Georgia risks falling behind other states who are increasingly offering families more and more choices in K-12 education. Two of the latest examples are Iowa and Utah.

In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds recently signed a bill into law that creates Education Scholarship Accounts (or ESAs) for lower income Iowa families, allowing the money to follow the child to the best school for his or her unique needs. The program will be phased in over three years until it’s available to all families regardless of income.

Meanwhile, the state House in Utah approved a bill last week that would create a similar ESA, with dollars available for families to use for expenses like private school tuition, therapies, tutors, or other curriculum. That bill next goes to the state Senate.

Many Georgia parents are likely looking at families in Iowa and Utah and wondering, “Why can’t we get the same level of educational opportunity here?” It’s a good question. Year after year, lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly have considered passing our own version of an ESA, but each year the measure has fallen short.

In the current 2023 session, lawmakers have another shot at passing ESAs and it’s well past time to make them a reality. The biggest argument against ESAs is that they will hurt traditional public schools. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We believe that when families are well served by our K-12 education infrastructure, all schools will benefit.

Georgia risks falling behind other fast-growing states unless we address the need to offer a truly diverse set of educational options.

The bottom line is that Georgia’s public schools are serving most families well — and public schools are the best option for most families in our state. But for some families, traditional public schools aren’t the best fit for their child’s needs. And in many cases, those schools will never be the right fit due to challenges and needs that can’t be met at those schools.

That’s why more options are needed. Georgia risks falling behind other fast-growing states unless we address the need to offer a truly diverse set of educational options. Let’s make 2023 the year that progress happens.

2023 agenda

Key Points

Our primary education-centric emphasis will be on passing legislation for Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs).
Over the course of 2023, we’ll focus on working in more schools statewide.
Our team is excited to broaden BETTER WORK’s reach so this highly successful program can continue to nurture, jump-start, and inspire those who need it most.

As the new year dawns, we’re excited about everything we were able to accomplish with your support in 2022. But our focus is also forward, and our team is excited to expand our growth and reach into Georgia communities and beyond in 2023. Today, we’re outlining our 2023 agenda, so let’s jump right in!

Policy

Our primary education-centric emphasis will be on passing legislation for Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs). But we’ll also be advocating for reforms to public school funding formulas to ensure that money follows each child to the school their parents or guardians have chosen. We’ll also support legislation to expand the Tuition Tax Credit Scholarship program.

Here are some of the other important areas where we’ll be focusing:

- - - Benefits Cliffs Reform Task Force: We’ll ask the legislature to appoint a joint House/Senate committee to investigate and seek out reform ideas for the welfare system’s disincentives to marriage and work.
    - Welfare/Workforce Integration: This is a critical piece of trigger legislation that would integrate Georgia and federal workforce development services and welfare benefits. Modeled after work done in Utah, integration will take effect when Congress passes legislation that allows it.
    - Prisoner Reentry: We will advocate for legislation that requires licensing boards to offer returning citizens the opportunity to get an occupational license upon release from prison. (These licenses would not be related to the crimes they were convicted for.) Based on our earlier successes changing the law, licensing boards are meant to be doing this already. But we’ve received word that they aren’t following the intended procedures. This new law would give returning citizens the right to appeal denials issued by a licensing board.

“There’s much work to be done in the new year, but we’re ready to rise to the challenges.”

Family

Strengthening families through better education, job opportunities, and legislation is at the heart of what we do. Many of our initiatives result in the establishment of new families, as well as adding multiple layers of stability to new and existing families. We’ll address those initiatives in other sections of this post, but for our purposes here, we’ll talk about our push to keep kids in school.

Over the course of 2023, we’ll focus on working in more schools statewide. We’ll accomplish this through our Raising Highly Capable Kids curriculum. Raising Highly Capable Kids equips parents with 40 essential developmental assets, which have been shown to improve children’s academic performance dramatically. As our reach expands, we’ll zero in on serving students from Title I schools who are at risk of dropping out.

BETTER WORK

The BETTER WORK initiative serves to help unemployed and underemployed individuals find gainful employment that helps them feel fulfilled and successful. BETTER WORK ultimately contributes to better long-term financial stability for individuals and families in Georgia. We’re committed to increasing our efforts in the new year.

When it comes to the BETTER WORK program, we have two primary goals in 2023:

Growing our community program reach in Columbus and Gwinnett counties. We’re aiming for a combined total of 1,000 job candidates in 2023. Part of this initiative includes optimizing our mentors’ effectiveness through additional training and content. We’ll also be expanding training options for job candidates to help them prepare for the job market.
Using the lessons we’ve learned from implementing BETTER WORK and creating a replicable model we can take into other communities.

Our team is excited to broaden BETTER WORK’s reach so this highly successful program can continue to nurture, jump-start, and inspire those who need it most.

Education

Throughout 2023, the Georgia Center for Opportunity will work toward equipping Georgia parents with essential tools and skills for finding the best learning opportunities and environments for their children. We’ll also assist them with learning how to access funding and scholarships that will help to pay for their children’s education. These combined efforts will provide parents with a more substantial voice as they advocate for better educational options.

The Georgia General Assembly’s passage of House Bill 517, effectively raising the state Tax Credit Scholarship Program cap from $100 million to $120 million per year. In addition, HB517 removes the automatic program sunset and doubles how much individuals, LLCs, and S Corporations can contribute. While we appreciate the marginal gain of $20 million and the strengthened tax-credit program, we would have liked to see the Senate raise the cap to the House’s proposed $200 million. Hopefully, in the next legislative session, the cap will be increased further.

Still, thousands of children in Georgia will benefit from this broadened access to high-quality education. Regardless of our organizational stance on the finalized legislation, we celebrate the educational opportunities these children will enjoy.

Alliance for Opportunity

In the coming year, we’ll be working alongside our partners in Louisiana and Texas to forward our joint effort to improve our respective states’ employment, welfare systems, and criminal justice policies. We’ll focus on partnering with our Congressional representatives to advocate for and advance legislation that would give states the ability to reform their workforce development and welfare programs. Ultimately, our goal is to help those programs work together seamlessly, without discouraging marriage or gainful employment.

Wrapping Up

There’s much work to be done in the new year, but we’re ready to rise to the challenges. As 2023 unfolds, we remain dedicated to supporting our Georgia communities and beyond, going above and beyond to help improve policy and strengthen families, careers, and educational opportunities. Once again, we’re grateful for your support!

Utah

Key Points

Public safety

Workforce

Safety-net reform

Education

Family

National and state impact

Wrapping up

Key Points

Where do we go from here?