Georgia failed to count thousands of high school dropouts, By Nancy Badertscher and Kelly Guckian, August 19, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia’s dropout problem is twice as bad as school officials previously calculated, an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows. Using data for the Class of 2011, obtained through an open records request, the AJC found that 30,751 students left high school without a diploma, nearly double the 15,590 initially reported. The discrepancy came to light because this year the federal government made all states use a new, more rigorous method to calculate graduation rates. Under the new formula, the state’s graduation rate plunged from 80.9 percent to 67.4 percent, one of the nation’s lowest. Part of the reason for the decline is that the new formula defines a graduate as someone who earns a diploma in four years, though thousands of students take five years or longer. But the AJC’s analysis shows – for the first time – how much of the discrepancy stemmed from a failure to accurately measure how many students drop out…”
Tag: Georgia
States and Medicaid Expansion
- Medicaid: Flood of funds awaits OK in Georgia, By Carrie Teegardin and Misty Williams, August 12, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Gov. Nathan Deal is facing a $40 billion dilemma. The federal health care law would inject that gigantic sum into Georgia’s health care economy over 10 years by adding more than 650,000 low-income Georgians to the Medicaid program. Deal, a strong opponent of the law, is wary of the proposition. The state projects that Georgia’s share of the law’s $40 billion cost for a fully expanded Medicaid program would reach $4.5 billion over a decade, a sum the governor fears would break a state budget already stretched by health costs. From a political perspective, Deal could safely turn down the expansion since the law is wildly unpopular among Republicans. In fact, Republican governors in at least five states have already announced they will do just that…”
- Medicaid: Projection at issue, By Carrie Teegardin, August 12, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Budget gurus and health officials in every state are trying to project the costs and benefits of the Affordable Care Act. Georgia is no exception. As state officials try to decide whether Georgia will agree to expand its Medicaid program, putting a price tag on that decision has been the first order of business. Some experts who have reviewed the numbers say the state’s projections may overstate the likely costs. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed the details of the state’s latest projections, obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act…”
- Medicaid: Block grants preferred by some states, By Misty Williams, August 12, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “While five Republican governors have flatly refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, another five have said there’s one way the expansion could work. Those governors want ‘block grants,’ which limit the amount of federal dollars states get to one lump sum but have fewer rules on how it must be spent. Officials are then free to figure out what works best in their states. Under the current system, federal funding is open ended – increasing if enrollment or health care costs go up – but comes with a lot more instructions…”
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- House Democrats fall short in efforts to block food stamp cuts as lawmakers write farm bill, Associated Press, July 11, 2012, Washington Post: “Democrats fell short in efforts Wednesday to block cuts to the food stamp program as the House Agriculture Committee moved ahead on a half-trillion-dollar bill to fund farm and nutrition programs over the next five years. The program that helps feed 46 million people at a cost of near $80 billion a year was the dominant issue as committee members tried to advance one of the larger and more expensive bills that Congress is taking up this year. Democrats insisted that any cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would result in people going hungry. Republicans said they were merely trying to bring efficiency to a program to ensure that anyone who is qualified for food benefits will receive them…”
- Number of Georgians on food stamps balloons, By Daniel Malloy and Katie Leslie, July 7, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Nearly one in five Georgians now gets federal assistance to put dinner on the table. As Congress debates the future of the food stamp program, with Republicans looking to cut it back, the number of recipients in Georgia has ballooned to 1.9 million as of April, or nearly 20 percent of the population. The state’s 0.4 percent increase from March was the seventh largest growth rate in the country, making Georgia one of 13 states where the number of beneficiaries rose, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center…”