Victories for Georgia’s Future

There were two victories for Georgia’s future today, one for members of the working class that find themselves temporary unemployed every summer and another for the future of public education in Georgia.

In a victory for the working class, the state of Georgia was ordered to reverse its ruling regarding unemployment benefits for workers who find themselves seasonally unemployed.

Thousands of Georgia bus drivers, cafeteria workers and private school teachers, who this year were denied usual summertime unemployment checks, may get that money after all, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler instituted the benefits change on Jan. 30. He said it was unfair for contractual workers to receive seasonal benefits when public school system employees don’t.

Washington officials determined last week that the Georgia Department of Labor violated workplace laws by refusing to pay the benefits. In an Aug. 2 letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the federal government ordered Butler to rescind the ruling and pay the teachers and contract workers for the weeks, or months, of lost unemployment benefits.

Read more on this story at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a victory for the future of public education in Georgia, Republican State School Superintendent John Barge has announced he is against the constitutional amendment in November that would centralize charter schools under the state, taking power away from local governments.

“I cannot support the creation of a new and costly state bureaucracy that takes away local control of schools and unnecessarily duplicates the good work already being done by local districts, the Georgia Department of Education, and the state Board of Education,” Barge said in a prepared statement. “What’s more, this constitutional amendment would direct taxpayer dollars into the pockets of out-of-state, for-profit charter school companies whose schools perform no better than traditional public schools and locally approved charter schools (and worse, in some cases).”

Read more on this story at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.