The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Awareness that should yield action
Broad, bipartisan agreement on challenges facing Georgia — such as poverty, health care, jobs and education — should make reaching solutions easier, not more difficult.
Success can be seen as successfully managing the intersection of challenges, opportunities and action. Each affects the other.
That insight seems especially clear heading into this year. And it carries implications for both this nation and Georgia.
A hard-fought, divisive clash of an election year yielded decisive results and substantive changes in elected leadership across the country. The message delivered was quite clear.
Voters demand a strong shift in how government operates. At the core of that desire is a cry for increased prosperity, especially among those at risk of being left further behind as the American economy continues to morph as only free-enterprise systems can do.
That sentiment is felt just as strongly in Georgia. And there are encouraging signs that the state’s elected and business leaders both seem attuned to shortcomings that demand corrective work. That was evident during last week’s rounds of speechifying that traditionally serve as a debut for what the Georgia General Assembly’s annual agenda will revolve around.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs & Issues breakfast usually begins this process of table-setting for the big issues. Chamber President and CEO Chris Clark wisely pointed out the need to improve economic conditions across Georgia, especially in struggling rural areas. “We can’t have a healthy economy if half of our counties lose population and rural hospitals close,” he told the audience.
Clark raises an excellent point for Georgia, one that deserves concerted, swift action by state lawmakers on the economic-impact levers that government controls. Improving sub-par K-12 schools and addressing the state’s health care shortcomings top that list, in our view.
Lawmakers should quickly begin work toward reinforcing the financial situation of struggling rural hospitals. Dawdling will only continue to leave these areas overtaxed when it comes to luring investment that creates jobs and bolsters tax bases — or enhancing the health of citizens by reducing unnecessary suffering from inadequate health care.
In his Eggs & Issues remarks, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle noted that, “for those who do have health insurance, the choices are too few and the costs are too high.” True. In addition, it should be unacceptable that more than 500,000 Georgians lack any form of health insurance. Creating the attractive environment for business and investment that state officials constantly claim as Job 1 demands much more than that.
Fixing Georgia’s failing schools is also vital to maximizing our human potential. Doing so will also increase our economic performance. The two are tightly intertwined.
With that recognition broadly shared by lawmakers of both parties, we eagerly await legislative proposals this year to address entrenched problems in the state’s worst public schools. Given the defeat of the Opportunity School District in November, devising and enacting new fixes is critical.
Ultimately, Georgia stands the best chance at solving its public policy problems creatively, efficiently and effectively if empathy is part of our toolkit. More than one Eggs & Issues speaker mentioned the need to address poverty and the corrosive effects it spills over onto opportunity and potential.
Lt. Gov. Cagle told attendees that, “as a child of a single mom, I know what it’s like to live in a trailer, I know what it’s like to live in an apartment and I know what it’s like to live in a house.”
His experience is one that is distressingly common, even in today’s Georgia that has come a long way in a relatively short time.
This year’s legislative session should see decisive new solutions that will push us further toward greater economic opportunity for all who’re willing to jump in and do their part.