Advanced Placement African American studies will be offered in Georgia high schools with state funding, Superintendent Richard Woods said Tuesday, but some members of both political parties are still wondering why there was ever any question.

Woods, a Republican, said his reversal came after receiving a letter from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, clarifying that , the state’s 2022 law banning so-called divisive concepts in the classroom, exempts AP, international baccalaureate and dual enrollment classes.

“Thus, any such course developed by its controlling entity will be automatically adopted within the state-approved course catalog. It will not have to receive a recommendation from either the State School Superintendent of Georgia or the Georgia State Board of Education. It will also not require a vote to approve or deny adoption into the state-approved course catalog,” Woods wrote in a .

“As I have said, I will follow the law. In compliance with this opinion, the AP African American Studies course will be added to the state-funded course catalog effective immediately,” he added.

Woods said all AP courses will now come with a disclaimer in the state course catalog stating that they were not vetted by the state and that districts need to obey the law.

The school year has already begun for many Georgia students, and some districts, including Atlanta Public Schools and Cobb County Schools, said they are offering the course like any other AP class.

Georgia’s largest school district, Gwinnett County, previously said it would not offer the class, but county superintendent Calvin Watts said Wednesday that schools will work with students who signed up for the course last spring to allow them to change their schedules to add the class.

“While this is a victory in many ways, the State Superintendent’s actions caused undue burden on our schools and pain to many in our community, including our students,” he said. “However, I am grateful for the collective advocacy of our students, families, staff, and community to do what is right for our students. I am sorry that we went through this, but I am happy that in the end, our students can take this course and receive the full AP experience and rewards of completing the course successfully.”

Woods’ move is a reversal from , when he said he chose not to recommend state approval for the college-level class because of the divisive concepts law, although he said schools could still offer the class through a workaround. That didn’t satisfy many critics, who said treating a class on Black history and culture as separate and controversial appeared racist.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp also evinced doubt about Woods’ decision, sending him a letter questioning aspects of the choice.

Last week, Woods said he was seeking to determine whether the law exempted AP and other advanced classes. That’s where Rep. Will Wade came in. The Dawsonville Republican who sits on the House Education Committee was the chief sponsor of the divisive concepts bill and said the bill absolutely exempts those classes.

“Once I understood that he was trying to find clarity, I felt obligated as the author of the bill to get clarification with the AG’s office, which he provided to me, and I shared it with the staff at the DOE to say, ‘Hey guys, I’m not sure why you are having confusion and what’s going on, but I want you to know that I’ve asked this question, and I’m happy to share it with you.’ And that occurred earlier this week,” Wade said.

The divisive concepts bill states that “Nothing in this Code section shall be construed or applied to …. Prohibit the full and rigorous implementation of curricula, or elements of a  curriculum, that are required as part of advanced placement, international baccalaureate,  or dual enrollment coursework; provided, however, that such implementation is done in a professionally and academically appropriate manner and without espousing personal  political beliefs.”

Wade said he and the House Education Committee decided to add that carve out to protect students’ opportunity to take challenging classes meant for college students and earn extra credit.

“I think that he understands that he made a mistake,” he said, referring to Woods. “I understand he apologized last week for how we got where we got, but I can’t tell you why. I don’t know his legal opinion or who is advising him in his office, and I’m a big believer in teamwork and learning from mistakes. I’m a son of two educators, and that’s part of learning, and so I hope that the superintendent uses this as a great learning experience to improve communication and gain better understanding in the future as it relates to laws that affect his department and his responsibilities.”

Education Department spokeswoman Meghan Frick said Woods had been in contact with Carr before receiving the letter from Wade.

“This, along with clarification he sought and received from the AG regarding the course adoption process, is the first formal legal opinion we’ve received on this issue,” she said.

The Georgia Attorney General’s office spokesperson Kara Murray confirmed the office provided legal advice but said they could not provide comment on it because of attorney-client privilege.

Powder Springs Democrat David Wilkerson, another House Education Committee member, said he’s relieved at the resolution, but he worries the divisive concepts bill creates more messes that lawmakers will need to decide how to tidy up.

“Even though the advanced placement was there you still get the risk of a teacher giving their political views, and that’s never been clarified on what that exactly means, your personal political views,” he said. “Is slavery wrong? Is it not wrong? I think we all agree at this point that it was wrong, but that still could be espoused as a political view. So I think as long as 1084 is around, I think you’re going to have that concern. Now instead of having it at the DOE level, you’re going to have it at the district level.”

The course has been a flashpoint in the culture wars nationwide, including in, where a lawsuit involving the course is underway, and in, where Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would ban the course because he said it represented an attempt to indoctrinate children.

The battle lines have been different in Georgia, with Republicans who speak on the record opposing Woods’ original decision not to support the class.

Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie said Woods may have realized he was fighting a losing battle without any allies, and Kemp may have calculated that appearing to fight against African American studies may have presented a bad look ahead of this year’s election.

“It could be something about not sending off unnecessary salvos in the culture wars,” she said. “This could be viewed as excessive, and it’s also something that could be framed as denying children the type of educational advantage that’s going to make them competitive for college, right? There are content discussions that I think Kemp and Woods and other Republicans are comfortable having, but this particular issue of denying a class for which Georgia students could get college credit, which would save them money in the long term and help them achieve a college education, is something that looks like that you’re actually denying people more things than you are providing more advantages and opportunities. And the optics of it look bad in a state where 30% of the population is Black.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on and .

Every weekday morning and afternoon, a fleet of yellow buses rolls out all over the state, picking up and dropping off Georgia students.

Keeping all those wheels turning isn’t cheap – Georgia’s school districts combined spend more than $1.2 billion to safely shuttle kids between school and home – and costs are only getting higher as more students enroll and the costs of buses, fuel and labor rise.

For more than two decades, local districts have been stuck footing those bills. According to the Georgia Budget Policy Institute, the amount of money the state pitches in for transportation has been basically stagnant since the early 2000s. Those state dollars used to fund over half of the districts’ transportation costs, but now only cover about 17%.

Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposed 2025 budget, which he unveiled Thursday, aims to pick up an additional $205 million of that, accounting for 40% of operational costs. The new spending is part of a planned $1.4 billion in new education spending, which also includes teacher raises and grants for school safety.

“Meeting our obligations as a fiscally conservative state means meeting our obligations to our local school systems,” Kemp wrote.

New money for yellow buses may not be as attention-grabbing as raises for teachers or a grant to hire school resource officers, but those dollars will go a long way, said Stephen Owens, director of education at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

“Unlike in the past where it’s been this one time funding, this forever sets the baseline higher,” he said. “This is a huge step forward for these districts. And when you pair that with other formula changes like the $100 million for school security grants, for that to be a continued line item for schools, the impact is going to be amazing for districts.”

The amount is not set to change with inflation, Owens added, so if costs continue to rise in the years to come, a future governor and legislators will need to take action to keep funding at the same level. But for now, reducing the costs of buses will free up schools to pay for all the other things they need.

“They’re going to see a lot of these funds that come down from the state just as a whole pot of money because of the vast amount of flexibility we provide districts on how to spend dollars from the state,” Owens said. “So that will open up dollars for better pay for substitutes, up to date curriculum, maybe continuing some of the programs that they started during the pandemic with federal dollars now with local dollars.”

Federal pandemic relief funds are set to dry up in September for schools nationwide, and districts, especially those in lower-wealth areas, will likely face cuts to staff, programs and extracurriculars.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on and .

If he’s re-elected this November, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he’ll push for a state budget with $65 million dedicated to fighting pandemic learning loss, hiring new guidance counselors and recruiting teachers.

In a Monday speech outlining his top education priorities for next year’s legislative session, Kemp said he will aim to increase the number of counselors treating students’ mental health issues.

“In speaking with school administrators, teachers and staff, one of the top concerns I consistently hear is the mental health needs of our students. While we have made key investments in this vital effort over my first term, we can and must do more,” Kemp said in remarks at Statham’s Dove Creek Elementary. “Counselors in schools across our state today do much more than just assist students with issues they may be facing psychologically. They are undeniably a critical asset to the overall health, well being and long-term success of our future leaders.”

In 2020 and 2021, Georgia schools provided one counselor for every 419 students, according to the American School Counselor Association. That’s close to the national average of 415 students per counselor, but a far sight off from the recommended 250 students per counselor.

An extra $25 million could help to close that gap, said Stephen Owens, education policy analyst at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

“I think that’s a great, I would say, first step, because the pandemic specifically highlighted that we can’t just educate kids’ brains if they’re dealing with mental health issues, if their bodies aren’t taken care of,” he said. “It showed just how much we need that social-emotional learning, mental health professionals. I’m never going to complain about $25 million dollars being added into the budget for school counselors, but hopefully, that isn’t treated as the job is completely finished.”

Kemp’s K-12 budget proposal also includes a $15 million grant designed to help recruit paraprofessionals, workers who assist teachers in the classroom and otherwise help students in a variety of ways, advance to become full-time teachers.

“We currently have more than 9,000 paraprofessionals with four-year degrees working in our schools, but the cost and length of time required for these hard-working Georgians to become certified educators is a major obstacle for many,” he said. “To help these parapros offset their significant certification costs, my budget proposal for next year will include $15 million for a $3,000 reimbursable grant program. These funds will help get more teachers in the classroom, and assist Georgians already passionate about (helping) our students achieve career success.”

Owens applauded the idea.

“I think it’s a good read that there are financial barriers to keep from people being in the classroom in a paraprofessional role,” he said. “And when you consider just how helpful parapros can be as a way to rethink the teacher pipeline, these are folks in the classroom, if they can be set up that way, kind of in a grow-your-own program, to become teachers, that just makes everything better because they know the context. They live in the communities. We don’t have to maybe set up tax credits to get folks from UGA to move down to rural Georgia, maybe we could invest in the people who are already there in the classroom.”

Kemp cited state data showing the number of third graders reading on grade level dropped to 63% from 73% from 2019 to 2022, which he said was the result of pandemic learning loss, and said he will direct another $25 million to grants aimed at getting these students back on track.

“Schools with students in this category may apply for these grants to leverage additional tutoring services, non-traditional staff, or supplement existing learning loss services,” he said. “By working with our local school systems and providing targeted funds to bring these kids back up to grade level, I’m confident that we can lend a helping hand to the students who need it the most.”

The governor also listed several proposals he said will strengthen schools’ ability to keep students safe, including updating state law to include intruder alert drills, providing voluntary anti-gang and school safety training for new and current teachers, assigning the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security agency to review school safety plans and recommending continuing education and training updates for all school resource officers every two years.

“These reforms will make our schools safer, but also strengthen the state-local partnership to improve communication and sharing of best practices when it comes to improving school security,” Kemp said.

Kemp’s Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, released her slate of educational in June.

Her K-12 priorities include increasing the state base salary for teachers from $39,092 to $50,000 and raising average teacher pay from $62,500 to $73,500, which her campaign says will shift Georgia from 21st in the nation in teacher salaries to the top 10.

Abrams has also called for programs to help paraprofessionals earn their teaching certification while they work by expanding existing programs and grants. Her platform also includes partnering with colleges and universities to recruit students to teach in rural areas.

Next year’s legislative session is set to begin in January featuring lawmakers elected this November.

One major change that could come out of the 2023 General Assembly was not mentioned during Kemp’s remarks, but a powerful group of state senators is set to hold its second of three meetings Friday to discuss changes to the long-running Quality Basic Education formula that how the state’s share of education dollars are disbursed.

“We still have this kind of giant hole in the way that we fund schools by the fact that we don’t have any additional funding to educate students living in poverty,” Owens said. “And so I’m hoping that the Senate study committee, who has shown interest in that exact mechanism, can bring this more to the forefront as a way to really set up our funding system to do right by Georgians for the next 30 years of this formula.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on and .

Georgia teachers will soon be heading back to their classrooms with some extra cash for supplies.

Gov. Brian Kemp visited Ola High School in Henry County Friday to announce a $125 grant using his office’s share of COVID-19 federal relief funds for full-time public school teachers and staff members who provide instructional and supportive services to students on a daily basis.

Kemp told Ola teachers and faculty he hopes the funds will help out in the first school year since the pandemic not affected by distanced or remote learning.

“We hope this $125 back-to-school supply supplement will aid in these efforts and help us close the learning loss gap caused by the pandemic,” he said. “When it comes to protecting our children and their bright futures, we will not quit or slow down. That work will continue well into the new school year and those that follow.”

The money can be used for classroom materials and supplies or for products to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

During a brief classroom tour, Ola High Spanish teacher Dorcas Acosta told Kemp she already has plans for some of the money.

“I have my eye on these great manipulatives for the classroom with little questions on these boxes, kind of impromptu questions in Spanish, which gets them ready for real world impromptu questions,” said Acosta, who is also Ola’s teacher of the year. “So, it’s all about their little secret weapon and being globally competent and culturally aware. That’s what I’m excited to do with it.”

Kemp announced a similar $125 disbursement using federal COVID-19 aid in January. The latest installment will work the same way, and teachers will receive a notification about the money through the education funding platform ClassWallet in the coming days, the governor’s office said.

Kemp’s office did not release the cost of the payments, but the previous $125 grants amounted to just over $15 million.

The money for both sets of payments came from the federal government’s Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. Kemp’s office said $59.7 million remains in the fund, and more awards are set to be announced in the coming months.

Kemp is locked in a fierce with Democrat Stacey Abrams, who has criticized Kemp’s focus on controlling classroom content as wrongheaded and called for further pay raises for educators beyond the $5,000 achieved during Kemp’s term. Abrams’ education platform calls for an $11,000 increase in average teacher salary, which she says would put Georgia in the top ten states for best teacher pay.

An of 950 Georgia adults conducted July 21 through 24 had Kemp and Abrams in a virtual tie – Kemp had 45% of the vote to Abrams’ 44%.

But an among 902 likely Georgia voters conducted July 14 through 22 gave Kemp a bigger lead, 48% to 43%.

 is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on  and .

Georgia lawmakers have halted, at least for now, the Buckhead neighborhood’s effort to secede from the rest of Atlanta. On Friday, House Speaker David Ralston joined other Republicans in opposing legislation that would have allowed residents in the affluent community to vote on cityhood this fall. 

Caren Solomon Bharwani has lived her entire life in Buckhead, an exclusive Atlanta enclave known for stately homes set back from dogwood-lined streets and upscale shopping on Peachtree Road.

Her kids have enjoyed Atlanta’s school offerings, including the popular International Baccalaureate program, and she’s formed tight bonds with educators providing services to her two children with disabilities.

That could be upended, however, if a vocal segment of Buckhead’s mostly white and wealthy population achieves its goal to secede from the city. Georgia law doesn’t allow the neighborhood to form its own school district. Secession, therefore, would leave 5,500 students and 800 employees in the neighborhood’s eight schools in limbo; unless legislation passes to keep them in the Atlanta Public Schools, they’d be subsumed by the surrounding Fulton County school system. 

Bharwani said she “desperately” fears losing the support her children receive if the neighborhood secedes.

Proponents of a Buckhead breakaway — including many with school-age children — complain of rising crime, neglected potholes and an encroaching homeless population. But opponents view the effort as and legally shaky. Buckhead, which is 86 percent white, generates an estimated $230 to $300 million in property taxes that is used to fund education. As with similar secession efforts across the country, the proposal has the potential to siphon off revenue from the region’s more affluent families, leaving residents in Atlanta’s majority Black district with fewer resources.

“Residential secession movements, typically driven by wealthier white communities, are almost always bad for education,” said Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. If Buckhead is allowed to secede, “concentrations of poverty will increase in Atlanta, making students left behind worse off. The tax base necessary to support Atlanta public schools will suffer.”

The move comes as the district continues to grapple with persistent inequities. A from the Latino Association for Parents of Public Schools estimated it would take more than a century for Black students to catch up with their white peers in reading and math.

The issue has divided neighbors and policymakers, and presented newly elected with one of the first major challenges of his tenure. It is already one of the most contentious issues before state lawmakers this year. At least two secession bills await action, and more could be introduced before the session ends.

‘Right to vote’

Bill White, a former Democrat-turned-Trump-fundraiser who chairs the Buckhead City Committee, insists he’s not trying to weaken the Atlanta district’s tax base. 

He promises that final legislation will specify that students can remain in their schools and the Atlanta district will hold on to its share of the property tax revenue Buckhead generates. He advises Atlanta’s district leaders — who — to stick to their mission. 

“Instead of attempting to interfere with Buckhead’s 70,000 citizens’ absolute right to vote on its own destiny, we hope [Atlanta Public Schools] will focus all its attention, resources and capabilities on the singular and much more important goal of providing higher quality education for our beloved children,” he said in a statement.

But many are skeptical of White’s promises to ensure stability for neighborhood students.

Mikayla Arciaga, a former Atlanta Public Schools teacher who lives in Buckhead and ran unsuccessfully for the school board last year, accused proponents of “baffling overconfidence.”

“It might be sorted out,” she said, “but we’re talking about our kids, who have already experienced two years of education disruption.”

White and other proponents argue that becoming a city would allow them to take public safety and other services into their own hands. Once a rural getaway for Atlanta’s old-money families, Buckhead was annexed into Atlanta in 1952. But Buckhead, like the city as a whole, has faced a recent that has put residents on edge.

last summer showed rates of robberies, aggravated assaults and car thefts were higher in Buckhead than citywide. But Atlanta’s mayor recently to open a new neighborhood police precinct and in January, a new police captain for the area said the community was starting to see a decline in .

Some parents support secession despite the uncertainty over Buckhead’s schools. Meredith Bateman, who has two children at Atlanta Classical Academy, a charter school, is among them.

A Buckhead resident since 2002, Bateman said she no longer feels safe in her community and is careful about where she stops to get gas. In 2020, a man pointed a gun at her husband and daughter during a moment of road rage on a residential street. She doesn’t allow her daughter, now 15, to go to Lenox Square — the area’s high-end shopping mall — by herself.

“That’s not normal. She should be getting some independence,” Bateman said. “Gone are the days of saying, ‘I’ll drop you at the mall, and I’ll pick you up later.’”

‘Two years of education disruption’

Opponents of secession say there are too many unanswered questions. Among them: What will happen to the district’s buildings and employees if the students become part of the Fulton schools. Atlanta school board member Michelle Olympiadis said it’s possible Fulton would buy out or lease the buildings. Employees would be displaced and have to reapply for positions.

“What teachers are going to want to stay through that turmoil?” Arciaga asked. 

But she agrees city services could improve. Some parks, she said, haven’t been maintained in years, leaving residents to pick up trash and remove broken tree limbs. 

Another complication is that the proposed city limits drawn up by the Buckhead City Committee don’t match current school attendance zones: Left out are the more diverse neighborhoods on the edges.

“Magically, the areas they’ve not included tend to be the higher minority areas,” said Keisha Burgess Prentiss, who has a fifth grader at Bolton Academy and a younger child entering pre-K this fall.

She moved to the area specifically to enroll her children in the district’s International Baccalaureate and dual language Spanish immersion programs. But the elementary school her older daughter attends is outside the proposed boundaries, while the middle and high school lie within. If Buckhead becomes a city and the schools join the Fulton district, her children would no longer be eligible to attend. 

Leila Laniado, a proponent of secession, is confident her daughter will be able to remain in the Atlanta district. As a Hispanic woman, she rejects the notion that residents want to keep out minorities.

“Every time people bring race into the discussion, it’s done purposely to divide,” she said.

Fulton officials, meanwhile, have mostly stayed quiet as their legal team weighs potential scenarios. One possibility is that the two districts reach an agreement in which students living in Buckhead remain in the Atlanta district, said spokesman Brian Noyes. 

But he added that officials have avoided the debate and don’t want to “spend a lot of energy around what-ifs.”

Not the first attempt

For now, supporters and opponents are fixing their attention on the state legislature. Four Republican lawmakers from outside Buckhead introduced bills in support of secession, but that doesn’t mean state GOP leaders are unified on the issue. Former U.S. Sen. , who is challenging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in the May primary, is in favor of a referendum on cityhood, while Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is opposed. House Speaker David Ralston hasn’t taken a stand. 

In a move some predicted would kill the effort, Duncan assigned one of the bills related to secession to an . There hasn’t been any action on the issue since mid-January, but those on either side expect they won’t know the outcome until the session ends March 31.

Duncan argues that rising crime is not unique to Buckhead and stems from racial unrest and the pandemic. Secession, he says, won’t solve the problem and would leave Atlanta with fewer financial resources to prevent crime.

“Criminals will still find their way to Buckhead despite the change in mailing address,” he wrote in an .

There have been in Buckhead, but they didn’t reach the legislature. A 2008 newsletter arguing in favor of a breakaway lamented that the community’s taxpayers were “simply tired of having our votes and money taken for granted by the City of Atlanta.”

Olympiadis, the Atlanta school board member, thinks the current effort has more momentum. If cityhood proponents are successful, she fears, other wealthy parts of the city, such as Midtown, will follow suit.

If the issue gets through the legislature and wins at the polls, Bharwani, an organizer of opposition group Neighbors for United Atlanta, expects the matter to wind up in court, with families hanging in the balance until it’s settled. The cityhood committee can “write in their bill that [Atlanta Public Schools] has to continue educating the kids,” she said, “but there’s no provision in Georgia law that allows for any of this to happen.”