Author: Stephen Owens

Stephen is a senior policy analyst at GBPI, where he focuses on state polices and research that affect K-12 public education in Georgia.

Line of kids boarding a school bus

Budget and Taxes K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens

Overview: 2024 Fiscal Year Budget for K-12 Education

/ by Stephen Owens

    Gov. Kemp’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 provides Georgia’s public schools $11.9 billion, a $1.2 billion increase above current funding. The proposal includes an increase of $290 million to give teachers a cost-of-living adjustment and $846 million to assume the increases to the employer share for certified members of the State […]

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State of Education Funding (2023): Opportunity is Knocking

K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens

State of Education Funding (2023): Opportunity is Knocking

/ by Stephen Owens

    The United States is experiencing income inequality at a level not seen since the 1920s, and it is worse in Atlanta than in any other major American city.[1] The consequences of this inequality are made clear when examining student performance across districts. Georgia has one of the highest overall rates of child poverty […]

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Hidden Costs Exact a Toll: Results from GBPI’s 2022 School District Survey

K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens

Hidden Costs Exact a Toll: Results from GBPI’s 2022 School District Survey

/ by Stephen Owens

This report was co-authored by Monica Obregon, a fellow in the Southern Education Leadership Initiative, a program within the Southern Education Foundation Every year, the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute (GBPI) distributes a survey to each superintendent in the state to collect information on the effects of education funding on individual school districts, what improvements need […]

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Special Education Funding in Georgia

K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens

Special Education Funding in Georgia

/ by Stephen Owens | 2 Comments on Special Education Funding in Georgia

By several measures Georgia has a typical special education program, but this says less about the state and more about the inequities that our nation allows to proliferate within the education for students with disabilities. Any evaluation of the program is a practice of deciding just how different a state or nation would allow an […]

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Three Ways to Fix Georgia Education Funding

Blog K-12 Education Stephen Owens

Three Ways to Fix Georgia Education Funding

/ by Stephen Owens

Five Georgia senators will meet over the next few months to review education funding mechanisms as a part of Senate Resolution 650. The Quality Basic Education Act (QBE) determines the bulk of state funding for public schools and has undergone few changes since its enactment in 1985. What follows are three ways lawmakers can update […]

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Georgia Education Budget Primer for State Fiscal Year 2023

Budget Primer Higher Education K-12 Education

Georgia Education Budget Primer for State Fiscal Year 2023

/ by Stephen Owens

This section is co-authored by K-12 Senior Policy Analyst Dr. Stephen Owens and Higher Education Senior Policy Analyst Jennifer Lee.  Georgia’s 2023 Education Budget The state budget for K-12 public schools is $10.7 billion in FY 2023. After years of budgets with dedicated cuts to the state’s education system, lawmakers met the school funding requirement […]

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How to Support Georgia’s Schools Post-Roe

Blog K-12 Education Stephen Owens

How to Support Georgia’s Schools Post-Roe

/ by Stephen Owens

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling striking down Roe v. Wade has left states to decide limits on abortion access. In 2019 Georgia lawmakers passed House Bill 481, banning most abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected—roughly six weeks into a pregnancy. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided HB 481 can take effect. As […]

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Hundreds of Millions of Dollars at Stake for a Failed Policy | Bill Analysis House Bill 60 (LC 49 0793S)

Budget and Taxes K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens

Hundreds of Millions of Dollars at Stake for a Failed Policy | Bill Analysis House Bill 60 (LC 49 0793S)

/ by Stephen Owens

  Note: This piece provides an update to a 2021 analysis of a previous version of the bill, available here. Georgia’s General Assembly operates on a two-year session cycle, so while the bill did not pass in 2021 it is still live and lawmakers may consider the current version. Key Takeaways House Bill 60 would […]

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Bill Analysis: House Bill 999 (LC 49 0739)

Budget and Taxes K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens

Bill Analysis: House Bill 999 (LC 49 0739)

/ by Stephen Owens

  Key Takeaways House Bill 999 relies on a faulty measure to calculate the state’s allocations to public schools Georgia cannot afford to ignore the needs inside public schools in favor of exclusionary private schools State lawmakers concerned about Georgia’s children should reject HB 999 and consider legislation like HB 10 which provided additional funding […]

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Overview: 2023 Fiscal Year Budget for K-12 Education

Budget and Taxes K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens

Overview: 2023 Fiscal Year Budget for K-12 Education

/ by Stephen Owens

Download PDF     Gov. Kemp’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 provides Georgia’s public schools $10.7 billion, a $493 million increase above current funding. This addition would end budget cuts to the Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding formula, the state’s metric to determine necessary funding to K-12 public schools. The proposal includes an […]

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