Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025
Good morning! In the news today: Where funds for Georgia’s fledgling school voucher program are going; a new report on the state’s contentious Pathways health-care initiative; and a prominent Georgian civil rights leader delivers a speech in Brunswick, addresses the precarious status of civil liberties. Finally, we note some news you may have missed. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
NEWS: EDUCATION
Data: Church-affiliated private schools, retailers big winners in voucher program
Georgia’s new program to subsidize private K-12 education has helped more than 8,000 children move from public schools with low test-score averages to educational organizations affiliated mainly with Christian churches, data from the Georgia Education Savings Authority shows.
About $5.4 million of the $7.1 million distributed by the state authority at the start of the fall school semester went to 286 private schools serving 85 counties and nine cities, according to a data investigation by The Current GA and the Georgia Recorder.
The remaining cash — $1.7 million — went to 153 companies, including the megaretailer Amazon, that sell school supplies such as computers, tablets and books, records show.
This story is part of a continuing series by The Current and the Georgia Recorder examining Georgia’s school voucher program.
NEWS: HEALTH CARE ACCESS
Report: More money in admin costs than care
Most of the tax dollars used to launch and implement Georgia’s Medicaid work requirement program have gone towards paying administrative costs rather than health care for low-income Georgians, according to a new report by the nonpartisan U.S. government agency that monitors and investigates federal programs and spending.
The examination of the program by the Government Accountability Office echoes previous reporting by The Current GA and ProPublica showing that the program, Georgia Pathways to Coverage, has cost federal and state taxpayers more than $86.9 million even though it has enrolled a tiny fraction of the nearly quarter of a million, low-income Georgians who are eligible for free health care. (Read more in the investigative series here.)
Congressional Republicans cited Pathways as a model for the federal Medicaid work requirement law that is part of the so-called “big, beautiful bill” passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in July.
The report was requested by Georgia lawmakers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and other U.S. Senate Democrats who are critical of Medicaid work requirements, especially following the reporting by The Current and ProPublica that revealed how glitches in the Georgia Pathways digital platform, chronic workforce shortages at the state agency that help enroll people into the program and bureaucratic red tape kept Georgians from accessing the program.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration has asked the federal government to extend Georgia Pathways for five more years, and state officials say the Trump administration is expected to approve that request in coming weeks.
NEWS: CIVIL RIGHTS
‘Perilous’
“Perilous” is how Andrea Young, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, described the times in which we live, in a speech Saturday in Brunswick, as she detailed what she said was the deepening chill on the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech and dissent, The Current’s Jabari Gibbs reports.
A case in point, Young said, was the change of the location of her speech from the College of Coastal Georgia to a church in downtown Brunswick — a move made, she said, after she was asked to sign a letter saying she would not say anything “political” in her remarks.
The memorial service for Charlie Kirk the next day saw examples of why Young’s use of “perilous” may not have been too strong.
While Coastal Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter, speaking in an interview on Newsmax after the service in Glendale, Ariz., said he saw in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination “a spiritual revival” unprecedented in his lifetime — a revival that is a testament to the conservative leader’s insistence that all Americans be allowed to “speak out: and “not be frightened” — the messages that came out of the service itself were sometimes jarring.
As Kirk’s widow Erika said, “the answer to hate is not hate but love . . . even for those who persecute us,” President Donald Trump struck a different note. After describing Charlie Kirk as a person who “did not hate his opponents. He wanted what was best for them,” Trump averred, “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry. I’m sorry Erika.”
NEWS: UPDATES
ICYM
- Georgia’s Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that Brunswick could not be sued for the removal five years ago of a Confederate monument from Hanover Square.
- Savannah officials have issued their recommendations for parking improvements south of Liberty Street to Victory Drive, Savannah Agenda’s Eric Curl reports. He cites a recent presentation and notes a survey for community feedback, available until Sept. 28.
- The CAT fight waged by the Chatham County Commission and its chairman, Chester Ellis, against a new state law mandating an overhaul of the area’s transit authority’s board of directors continues.
- Gov. Brian Kemp’s press secretary, Carter Chapman, tells reporters in an email that the governor’s itinerary for his upcoming trip to South Korea and Japan was scheduled “well before the events of Sept. 4” — a reference to the detention of 475 workers, mostly South Koreans, at an EV battery plant in Ellabell. Meanwhile, there was confusion yesterday about President Trump’s plan for a $100,000 fee for H1-B visas for skilled workers.
- Skidaway Island Democrats hosted their first candidate forum of the season last week, hosting gubernatorial candidate Olu Brown, 1st District US House candidate Camden County’s Joe Palimeno, and state Senate candidate (District 1), Barbara Gooby. For information on future forums, click here.
- The Trump administration is ending the federal government’s annual report on hunger in America, saying that it had become “overly politicized” and “rife with inaccuracies,” The Wall Street Journal reports. In other government data news, staff from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water have been ordered to halt work on most ongoing research papers.
- President Trump makes his long-awaited announcement on autism, suggesting acetaminophen (Tylenol and similar products) during pregnancy can contributed to higher risk for the developmental disorder — a link that experts said is unproven.
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ACLU director warns of free speech erosion, privacy threats in Georgia
The Trump administration has transformed efforts to ensure equal opportunities and resources for all Americans into a form of discrimination, according to civil rights activist Andrea Young, who emphasized the importance of protecting voting rights and freedom of speech in the face of this administration’s assault on these rights.
Chatham County Commission shelves latest bid to reverse CAT overhaul
Critics say removed agenda item was nearly identical to August item that challenged state law and is now part of a lawsuit.
CDC panel opts against requiring COVID shot prescription, but wants greater emphasis on its risks
The CDC’s top vaccine advisory committee voted to change COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, emphasizing the risk-benefit of vaccination for individuals at increased risk of severe disease and individual decision-making for those 65 and older, while a proposal to require prescriptions for all individuals seeking the vaccine narrowly failed.
Spanish-language journalist in Georgia now faces imminent deportation
Spanish-language journalist Mario Guevara was ordered to be deported by an immigration judge on Friday, despite a pending First Amendment case in federal court, prompting a frenzied effort by his attorneys to stop the deportation.
Election officials press Georgia lawmakers for swift funding action
Lawmakers in Georgia are considering a law that would overhaul the way Georgians vote, and election chiefs are urging them to hurry up and provide funding for the change, while a statistician from UC Berkeley has raised concerns about the security of the state’s voting system.
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