Disparity wide in state babies’ health

The study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America reported on in today’s AJC sheds some light on the link between parental income and education with the health of children.  Not surprisingly, higher income and education generally yield better child health.  Also not a surprise is that Georgia is ranked near the bottom in the nation when it comes to disparities in infant mortality.  What does come as a surprise – at least at first glance – is the statistic that more than 40 percent of Georgia children live in poor or near-poor households, while 26 percent live in high-income families.

I’m still looking for a link to the report to find out how poor and high-income are defined.  It’s generally accepted that about 20 percent of Georgia kids live in poverty.  But 26 percent of kids live in high-come households?

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Counties collaborate on Pre-K classes

Georgia does not have the Pre-K slots needed to serve all the state’s four-year-olds. However, the actions of people like Dr. Donnell Carley, director of Mu-Dear Pre-School in Thomas County, are worth noting. He’s making sure all the spots out there are used.

Like many counties across the state, Grady County doesn’t have enough lottery-funded Pre-K spots to serve all its four-year-olds. Neighboring Thomas County, on the other hand, has too many slots. Fortunately, instead of letting county lines stand in the way of education for Georgia’s four-year-olds, the two counties have joined hands.  Carley has offered up the remaining spots at his center to Thomas County kids. He truly understands the importance of strong foundations for Georgia’s kids.

THOMASVILLE, GA (WALB) – Its a program growing in popularity all over the state. So much so, in Grady county, they don’t have room for the 40 children on the waiting list.   “We did request 2 expansion classes from Bright from the Start and as of this date we have not received them and I don’t think we will,” says Sandy Mudra, Grady County Pre-K Director.

Some of the pre-k programs in Thomas County on the other hand, have been struggling to fill their classes.   At Mu-Dear Pre-School in Thomasville, Administrative Director, Dr. Donnell Carley says pre-k is popular, but isn’t growing quite as fast.  “We’ve had a low rate of children. It was told to us a few years ago that its due to a low birth rate in Thomas County.”

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Georgia low on family doctors

Annual salaries for a family physician after years of study and thousands of tuition dollars is less than what a plumber makes in most parts of the country.  Overhead costs and frustrating health insurance reimbursement policies are making it almost impossible for a family practitioner to survive.

This spring, 385 students graduated from Georgia’s medical schools, but only two of them chose to remain in the state to pursue a family medicine residency. Overall, 20 students, or 5 percent, chose to go into family medicine — half the number that it was just five years ago.

“The decline in the percentage of medical school graduates entering family medicine is cause for concern,” said Kelly McNamara, research and analysis manager at the Georgia Board for Physician Workforce.

“Family medicine physicians often serve as the primary health-care providers in their communities because of their ability to care for patients of all ages and to treat a variety of medical conditions,” McNamara said.

More than one-third, or 58 of 159 counties in the state, many of them rural, are officially designated as primary-care health professional shortage areas. This designation, from the Health Resources and Services Administration, means that, on average, there is less than 1 doctor for 3,500 people. About 1.5 million people in the state are affected by the shortage of doctors.

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GA Lottery achieves $10B milestone for education

The Georgia Lottery Commission held a press conference Tuesday, July 15 to hand Gov. Perdue a symbolic check for $10 billion, representing the amount raised for education since the lottery was instituted 15 years ago.

That’s certainly good news for public education, and maybe the point of the press conference was more to make lottery employees feel good.  But it was disappointing that four TV news cameras recorded the event but no journalists were there to ask questions.  One question specifically:  With lottery funds achieving revenue increases for 15 straight years and a very large reserve fund of over $500 million, why aren’t there enough pre-K slots as were originally promised?

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Can’t ‘poor mouth’ this

Today’s Rome News-Tribune comments on Georgia’s once vaunted pre-K program based on the Southern Educations Foundation’s report issued two weeks ago.  With an abundant funding source in the state lottery, it’s hard to accept the lack of enrollment slots and decrease in per student spending.

GEORGIA’S government has gotten quite talented at using the “poor mouth” excuse for all that ails the state. It goes this way:

“We just don’t have the money to do that without raising your taxes. We love you too much to do that and, besides, we think we’re taxing you too much already.”

OK, let’s grant that there are some citizens who prefer keeping the jingle in their pockets to having good schools, smooth roads, sufficient water, adequate health care and so on. But how does Georgia explain the decay of a program that doesn’t involve any tax money at all and whose bank accounts are as flush as those of King Midas?

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Clarke, Barrow may get pre-K boost

After developing the national model for early education, Georgia is now playing catch-up with other states that have surpassed it in pre-K enrollment.  One thousand new slots have been added for the coming school year, but it’s not known how many kids are on waiting lists.  There’s no accurate tracking of waiting lists and they vary from county to county.  There is plenty of money, as the state lottery reserve fund has ballooned.  The issue appears to be a matter of physical space.

Georgia has changed the criteria for deciding where to add pre-kindergarten classes, and Barrow and Clarke counties will be at the top of the list this year as officials prepare to divvy up money for 1,000 new seats for 4-year-olds.

State administrators will use enrollment figures, the number of students on waiting lists for filled classes and the graduation rates of high school seniors to decide what parts of the state most need additional pre-K seats.

Pre-K administrators used to dole out funding based only on enrollment figures – also referred to as the saturation rate – said Mary Mazarky, an assistant commissioner of Bright From the Start, the state agency in charge of childhood education.

Registration for pre-K, which is intended to help 4-year-olds learn the skills they need to know before kindergarten, started at Clarke County’s 13 public elementary schools and private child care centers in March and should continue until the first day of school in August.

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