Pre-Kindergarten Teachers and Providers Get a Bump; Base Pay for Pre-K Assistant Teachers Needs

More Attention

The FY 2024 budget for the Georgia Pre-Kindergarten program increased to about $444 million, up from $401 million the previous fiscal year. The increases included:

• $20.9 million for a $2,000 increase in base salaries for state workers, Pre-K teachers and assistant teachers.

• $14 million for Pre-K classroom operations so Pre-K programs can redirect resources to increase pay for lead teachers.

• $8 million to increase the employer contribution for the State Health Benefit Plan.

Georgia’s lottery-funded Pre-K program can serve up to 84,000 4-year-olds at about $5,285 per student, the most provided since inception. However, children one grade older in public kindergarten are allotted $7,032 per student in state funds, a difference of $1,747 per child. If Georgia were to fund Pre-K at the same rate as kindergarten, the program would need an additional $147 million annually.

Georgia Pre-K Provided $1,700 Less per Student Than Public Kindergarten

Georgia’s Assistant Pre-K Teachers Need Bigger Pay Increase

One way state legislators could have increased per-student spending for Pre-K and improved assistant teacher retention was to increase their base pay. Pre-K assistant teachers have some of the lowest base pay among early childhood educators. Even with the $2,000 pay bump, the base salary for a Pre-K assistant teacher is $20,190 regardless of credentials; that’s about $11.47 an hour in a 40-hour week over the school year. Legislators ignored the resources available to help close the pay gap. Georgia has about $1.9 billion in lottery reserves, and the state requires only about $772 million in case of a shortfall in the net proceeds. Increasing assistant teacher pay helps keep workers in the role as they gain enough experience and/or credentials to become lead teachers, improving staff retention and classroom quality.

University System of Georgia / Board of Regents

The 2024 budget for the University System of Georgia (USG) is $3.1 billion. The vast majority, $2.9 billion, is allocated to USG’s 26 colleges and universities for student instruction, support services and basic college operations. The remaining funds go to cooperative extension services, public libraries and special funding initiatives. The FY 2024 budget represents a total net increase of $65.67 million, or 2.11 percent.

The FY 2024 budget includes $2,000 cost-of-living increases for full-time, benefit-eligible employees totaling $83 million, and $7.6 million in new enrollment funding. Dual Enrollment experienced a $7 million cut, with a total budget of $76 million for FY 2024. The total budget for capital projects for the Board of Regents is $198.2 million.

One of the most impactful budget implications is the $66 million reduction in the teaching program state funds for FY 2024 due to decreased enrollment at 20 institutions. The reduction is allocated across all 26 institutions to minimize disproportionate impacts on students and operations. Despite this decrease, the Board of Regents has held tuition flat at most institutions for five of the last seven years.

FY 2024 $66 Million Dollar Budget Cut Is Spread Across the USG

State

Clayton State University

Columbus State University

Fort Valley State University

Georgia College & State University

Georgia Southwestern State University

Middle Georgia State University

Savannah State University

University of North Georgia

College of Coastal Georgia

Dalton State University

East Georgia College

Georgia Gwinnett College

Georgia Highlands College

Gordon State College

South Georgia State College

Source: University System of Georgia Data.

Technical College System of Georgia

The Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) includes 22 colleges that provide both technical and core academic education.

The FY 2024 budget for TCSG is $444 million. About $383 million is allocated to technical education, and the remainder is for programs like Adult Education for individuals without a high school diploma and business initiatives, such as Quick Start—a workforce training program designed to promote job creation and retention for start-ups and support business expansion. The Quick Start budget for FY 2024 is $22 million.

The Technical Education FY 2024 budget includes $2,000 cost-of-living increases for full-time, benefit-eligible employees totaling $11 million and a $9 million reduction in funds due to decreased student enrollment in TCSG during the pandemic’s height. Additionally, an $8 million increase was allocated for high-demand and high-cost careers, including aviation, commercial driver’s license (CDL) and nursing programs.

Despite decreased enrollment during the pandemic’s height, TCSG saw a 2.3 percent enrollment increase from 2021 to 2022. This increase was reflected in both credit hour completion and full-time equivalent (FTE) student enrollment.

FY 2024 Technical College System Enrollment Trends

Lottery Funds Support Georgia Pre-K & HOPE Scholarship

Georgia’s lottery funds are constitutionally dedicated to support education and are accounted for separately in the budget. Lawmakers appropriated $1.4 billion from lottery sales to fund and administer education programs. Pre-K funds grew by $43 million, 10.7 percent, with nearly half of that increase going to fund $2,000 salary increases for certified teachers and assistant teachers.

Lawmakers made several important policy changes to lottery-funded programs in the FY 2024 budget.

• HOPE Scholarships total $875 million for USG and $91 million at private institutions, and HOPE Grants amount to $81 million at TCSG.

• The HOPE Career Grant award amount increased from $1,000 to $1,250 to meet the projected 100% for students in Commercial Driver’s License and Law Enforcement programs at the Technical College System of Georgia.

• HOPE Grants and Scholarships now cover 100 percent of the prior year’s tuition at all TCSG and USG colleges and universities. In contrast, the Zell Miller Scholarship will cover the current year’s tuition rate at all TCSG and USG institutions.

• Increasing HOPE Scholarship coverage to 100 percent of the prior year’s tuition, according to the Georgia Student Finance Commission, will impact at least 50,000 students. USG’s four research institutions—Augusta University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University and the University of Georgia—will experience the greatest benefit due to the policy change.

• The FY 2024 budget increases funds for private HOPE and Zell Miller award amounts. HOPE private awards increased from $2,977 to $2,985 and the Zell Miller award increased from $2,282 to $2,946, totaling $91 million for the FY 2024 budget for HOPE and Zell Miller awards at private institutions.

• Tuition Equalization Grants (TEG) provide grant aid to Georgia residents who attend eligible private postsecondary institutions. Funds from the Engineer Scholarship program were transferred to Tuition Equalization Grants to increase the award amount from $900 to $1,000 per year, totaling $24 million in FY 2024.

Source: GBPI analysis of HB 19 and Governor’s Budget Reports, FY 2016–FY 2024. Adjusted for inflation. AFY 2023 academic year enrollment based on 1.1 percent decrease in fall semester. Enrollment for FY 2024 is projected to be flat.

• The Inclusive Postsecondary Education Grants (IPSE) program was established with a total budget of $955,830 to provide financial aid to students with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are currently enrolled in the IPSE program at a postsecondary institution in Georgia.

Post-Secondary Affordability Barriers

Lottery-supported programs provide students in Georgia with assistance to prepare and complete their post-secondary goals; however, college affordability for Georgians has remained a challenge. The Board of Regents decided to keep tuition flat for the 2023-24 academic school year for the University System of Georgia, but data shows students require additional resources.

By the year 2000, the USG higher education formula covered 75 percent of the college costs in Georgia. The state’s share now covers just 57 percent, leaving students responsible for 43 percent of the cost of college. As such, Georgia ranks third in the nation for average student loan debt per borrower. Although lawmakers voted to fund HOPE at 100 percent of the prior year’s tuition rate, there is room for improvement to ensure that students have access to post-secondary options, beginning with need-based financial aid.

College Completion Grants

Georgia is one of two states that does not offer comprehensive need-based financial aid that would support students financially in the first year of college. To address this issue, in 2022, lawmakers passed HB 1435 to establish College Completion grants, a $10 million transfer from Student Access Loans that began rollout in the fall of 2023. The College Completion grants budget remains flat at $10 million for FY 2024.

Under the new program, institutions across the state were allotted various amounts of College Completion grants to disburse as needed. Students experiencing need and who complete at least 80 percent toward their postsecondary credentials at USG and TCSG are eligible for College Completion grants of up to $2,500.

During the 2023 Legislative Session, the General Assembly passed HB 249 to increase the award amount from $2,500 to $3,500. In addition, the eligibility toward degree completion requirement decreases from 80 percent to 45 percent for students enrolled in two-year programs, and from 80 percent to 75 percent for students enrolled at four-year colleges.

HB 249 was vetoed by Governor Kemp. Although $10 million remains for College Completion grants, $2 million was disregarded for FY 2024. The stated reason for the veto was that the College Completion grants were established in FY 2023 and have not had a full year of activity to assess usage and need.

College Completion Grant First Year Highlights

• In FY 2023:

• A total of 4,808 College Completion grants invoices were requested across USG and private institutions.

• The average award amount for all institutions was $1,150.

• Out of the $10 million budget, $5.5 million was spent to serve 4,254 students.

• Within TCSG and USG, most institutions utilized the College Completion grants, except for Augusta Technical College, Savannah Technical College, Gordon State College and Savannah State University.

Education Lottery Reserves

Every year, unspent lottery dollars transfer to reserves managed by the State Treasury. The beginning reserve for the education lottery on July 1, 2021, was $1.7 billion.

At the end of the 2021 fiscal year, about $71 million in surplus was transferred to the lottery reserves, along with an additional $5 million in interest earned by the end of the 2022 fiscal year.

Since 2011, state law has required the lottery shortfall reserve to hold an amount equal to 50 percent of the previous year’s net lottery proceeds. If lottery ticket sales underperform, the state can draw on this reserve to fund HOPE. After reaching the 50 percent target, additional reserves are considered unrestricted. At the end of FY 2022, the required Shortfall Reserve Balance was $772 million, and the state exceeded that balance by more than $1 billion. At the conclusion of FY 2022, the total education lottery reserves were $1.9 billion, or 129 percent of lottery proceeds.

Georgia’s 2024 Health Budget

The Departments of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Community Health and Public Health are the primary agencies focused on the state’s health care and public health systems. Georgia plans to provide $6.7 billion in state funds for these three agencies in the FY 2024 budget year, or about 21 percent of overall state spending. General Fund appropriations account for $5.9 billion, or about 89 percent, of the total state funds for these three agencies. Other sources, like Tobacco Settlement Funds, account for the remaining $712 million of state health spending. General Fund dollars for these three agencies increased by $638 million, or about 11 percent, from the AFY 2023 budget.

The Department of Community Health (DCH) accounts for about $4.8 billion, or 71 percent, of state health spending. The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) accounts for about $1.5 billion, or 23 percent, of state spending on health. The Department of Public Health (DPH) accounts for $400 million, or about 6 percent, of state spending on health.

State Health Spending by Agency

Health Priorities Impacted by Governor’s Directive to Disregard Budget Language

In May 2023, in his review and approval of the FY 2024 budget, the Governor issued guidance directing state agencies to disregard some budget language and to consider that language non-binding. In total, the Governor is directing state health agencies to disregard about $104 million in funding along with seven additional budget actions with no associated FY 2024 funding (also known as ‘Yes’ line items). These disregards are a small proportion of each Department’s budget but represent significant changes to address pressing needs like workforce gaps. For DCH, most of the disregards impact Medicaid provider reimbursement rate increases—from home and community-based services to obstetrics and gynecology rate increases. Due to concerns about a Medicaid base funding deficit, the Governor has redirected that funding to be used instead for Medicaid spending and growth.

For DBHDD, much of the disregarded funding for annualizing NOW/COMP waiver slots (to expand home- and community-based services and supports for individuals with disabilities) and for behavioral health crisis centers is still available for agency use with slightly modified language. However, about $17 million in funding for various purposes—from increasing salaries for state psychiatric hospital nurses and health aides to supporting the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline—has been entirely disregarded.

Source: Georgia’s 2024 Fiscal Year Budget (HB 19), signed by the Governor.

Source: Office of the Governor. HB 19 – FY 2024 Budget – Line-Item Veto and Disregard Letter and Statements, May 5, 2023.