It’s Friday!
Quote of Note
Obamacare’s supporters talked a lot about illnesses contributing to more than half of all bankruptcies, which implied there should have been a sharp decrease in 2014, when Obamacare’s major coverage provisions took effect. There wasn’t.
Obamacare’s supporters frequently cited America’s abysmal infant mortality rate, which implied that once Obamacare was in full swing, infant mortality should decrease sharply. It didn’t.
Obamacare’s supporters claimed that tens of thousands of people were dying every year because they didn’t have health insurance, which implied that by 2019, our overall mortality rate should be substantially lower than it had been in 2009, with a noticeable kink around 2014. Instead, mortality rates, which had been trending downward, leveled off around that time.
Obamacare’s supporters talked a lot about reducing health-care costs, or at least the rate at which they were growing. Sadly, no.
Megan McArdle
On Our Desks
Seriously, Dad? In his weekly column, Kyle Wingfield looks back at Father’s Day weekend and the importance of taking our children’s dreams seriously.
In case you missed it: Have you had problems with your garbage pickup? Our investigative journalist digs through the rubbish to find out why.
Around the State
Boom: Make sure you know Georgia’s fireworks laws ahead of any festivities you have planned for Independence Day.
To the moon! Georgia’s first commercial spaceport is nearing FAA approval after nine years.
Some folks have all the luck: A Georgia man is the subject of a crypto mishap and woke up a trillionaire.
Government
Back to work? Georgia Department of Labor Career Centers are still not open. The labor department says there’s no timeline for when the career centers are supposed to open. Source: WMAZ
Smile! You’re on camera: Gwinnett County is set to make $4.4 million on tickets from speed trap cameras this year. Source: Associated Press
Housing
$$$: Falling lumber prices aren’t going to push home prices down, says the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Ouch: Move.com names Atlanta the worst city for minimum-wage earners to live in. According to their research, people earning the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in the city would need to work 177 hours a month—or slightly more than 22 days if you work eight hours a day—to afford a one-bedroom apartment.
Education
Georgia public school board blocks charter school due to ‘competition’: The Dougherty County School Board blocked educational entrepreneur King Randall from purchasing an abandoned school building unless he allowed district employees to teach at his school and used the district’s curriculum. His school “The X for Boys” has a “91 percent improvement in grades, an 82 percent proficiency in general contracting, and a stunning 0 percent rate in criminal recidivism” compared to Dougherty County Public Schools. Source: FEE.org
Back to school? FEE identified four indications that the pandemic is causing declining public school enrollment. Kerry McDonald cites a 40% downturn in kindergarten registrations since last year in Marietta public schools, among many others. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, homeschooling rates doubled from 5% in spring 2020 to over 11% in fall of the same year.
The Rise of Black Homeschooling: According to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report “homeschooling rates quintupled among Black families, with the proportion of homeschooling increasing from 3.3% in the spring to 16.1% in the fall of 2020.” Source: RedefinED
Energy and Environment
Zap to Zoom: The Georgia Recorder investigates Georgia’s electric car infrastructure.
Healthcare
The Final Countdown: Gov. Brian Kemp is officially ending Georgia’s public health state of emergency on July 1.
Not so peachy: Georgia Health News reports that Centene, the parent company of Peach State Health Plan, is involved in a dispute over Medicaid pharmacy benefits, apparently over billing. So far Centene has agreed to pay $88 million to the state of Ohio and $55 million to Mississippi. Georgia, Arkansas, Kansas and New Mexico are also in negotiations with the company pending possible litigation.
COVID-19 update: The Georgia Department of Public Health reports COVID-19 cases, deaths and vaccination rates on its website here.
Visit georgiapolicy.org to read the Foundation’s latest commentary, “To Do No Harm, Protect Donor Privacy” by Kennedy Atkins.
Have a great weekend.
Kyle Wingfield and Benita Dodd
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