NEWS & OPINIONS
Fundraiser special guests: Jeff and Jimmy Kemp
GCO is thrilled to have Jeff and Jimmy Kemp join us at our annual fundraiser on December 4, 2014 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Jeff and Jimmy will be with us to share recollections of their father, the late Jack Kemp, and discuss why his legacy...
Breakthrough Ambassadors College Campus Tour
Visit Duke and UNC Chapel Hill on 11/23/14 - 11/24/14 with Breakthrough Ambassadors. The tour is open to parents and 10th - 12th grade high school students. Check out this fantastic opportunity through Breakthrough Ambassadors to visit UNC Chapel Hill and Duke for an...
Breakthrough Showcase – Business Community
Click the link to register for the event: secure.foropportunity.org/breakthroughshowcase
Save The Date: Reception and Annual Fundraiser
Join us at the College Football Hall of Fame on December 4, 2014 to celebrate the life and legacy of the late Jack Kemp. Register to Attend
10/16/14 EVENT: Hope for Failing Schools
Imagine taking schools performing in the bottom 5 percent of all schools in a district, where reading proficiency is 22 percent and math proficiency is less than 3 percent (no, that's not a typo!), and doubling and tripling those numbers in just two years time. That...
The State of Corrections in Georgia
Every Georgian is affected by the criminal justice system in some way. Whether it is paying taxes to fund the more than a billion dollars spent on prisons each year or knowing a loved one who has spent time behind bars, the justice system is becoming an increasingly...
The Gifted Education Foundation
Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) desires to see students flourish. As a way of realizing this vision, GCO supports organizations that have a similar heartbeat to see students succeed. One such organization is the Gifted Education Foundation (Gifted). This summer,...
Recommendations for Expanding Access to Quality Healthcare
This is the sixth entry in a series of posts highlighting GCO’s new report - Increasing Access to Quality Healthcare for Low-Income Uninsured Georgians. The first entry provided an overview of the report, the second looked at Georgia’s healthcare safety net, the third...
Fellowship Friday: Relationships Open the Door to Educational Attainment
Hidden beneath academic benchmarks, league tables, and other measures of success in education, are the relationships and personal traits that fuel positive and negative outcomes for students.
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...
MEDIA MENTIONS
Georgia AG files legal brief protecting school choice
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr fears that if a Montana court’s restriction on school choice programs is not reversed, it will open the door for other state courts to enact similar laws. The Montana Supreme Court’s decision excludes religious schools from the...
More jobs in distressed areas could reduce Georgia’s poverty rate
More job opportunities for the poor could be the solution for poverty in Georgia, a free-market solutions advocate says. Georgia’s workforce and economy have shown promising growth, but new numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau show poverty has declined in the...
DeKalb sheriff launches job training program for jail inmates
Some of the newest students at Georgia Piedmont Technical College reside in a high-rise less than two miles away. But the towering building is not one of luxury. It is the DeKalb County jail, and these nine inmates are the first to participate in a job training...
Georgia Gov. Kemp calls for state budget cuts
State agency officials in Georgia will have until Sept. 6 to come up with a plan to cut spending by 4 percent in 2020 and by 6 percent in 2021. Gov. Brian Kemp has instructed agency heads to submit amended budget proposals that reflect the cuts along with their 2021...
His college graduation was delayed by prison. Now a Perry student has a second chance.
Joshua Brown will tell you without much prompting that he served three years in prison for aggravated assault. He’s not proud of it. But he owns it. The Vidalia native, who lives in Perry, said his jail sentence was the result of a series of bad decisions. Two-thirds...
Best-selling author Tim Carney offers insights on America’s economic, cultural problems
America is in an economic and cultural crisis, as millions lack the tools that make a fulfilling life: A great education, stable job, and healthy relationships. The chief question, of course, is how to best connect our neighbors with opportunities that lead to a...
Successes During the 2019 Legislative Session
As the dust settles on another Georgia legislative session, we are pleased to report that the overall results for bills that GCO worked on to achieve passage were positive and encouraging. Education Opportunities Expand Once Again For starters, in the education...
Strategies to reignite the power of work
The economy is booming: Employment is at record-breaking levels, and income and wages are finally rising again. Yet something is missing. Despite all the positive economic news, a significant percent of Georgians (and Americans broadly) have been left behind. This...