Strengthening the Foundation
Investments in the Adult Workforce
Build a More Prosperous Georgia

BY SARAH BETH GEHL

Nearly one in three working families in Georgia are low-income. This means that approximately 323,840 Georgia families earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold. Wage earners in these low-income Georgia families are hard working, typically holding about 1.2 full-time jobs per family. Yet despite their efforts, most are not earning a sufficient income to meet the rising costs of housing, health care, child care, and other necessities. Child care and its related costs are particularly challenging, since all of these families include children—almost 690,000 children.

As part of the national Working Poor Families Project (WPFP), the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) has published a report, Strengthening the Foundation: Investments in the Adult Workforce Build a More Prosperous Georgia. The report, which was released in January, assesses a range of state policies and programs designed to help low-income working families succeed in the labor market and achieve economic security. The report examines three areas:

1. Public adult and post-secondary education—the capacity of those systems to serve Georgia's workforce and the connections of those systems to Georgia's low-income working families
2. Economic development—how those efforts are targeted to low-income working Georgians and to quality job growth
3. Work and income supports—how work and income support systems can remove barriers to work and advancement, and assist families in achieving self-sufficiency

With education and economic opportunity so closely linked, the education findings were among the most startling:

• In a majority of low-income working families (57 percent), neither parent has had any post-secondary education. A full 30 percent of low-income working families have at least one parent who did not complete high school.
• More than 900,000 adults ages 18 to 64 lacked a high-school diploma or GED in Georgia in 2005. For adult basic education and literacy programs, Georgia allocates $13.16 per adult without a high school diploma, compared to the national average of $63.41 per adult without a diploma.
• Two-thirds of prime-working age adults (ages 25 to 54) lack a post-secondary credential. Yet, only 7.7 percent of adults were enrolled in post-secondary education in 2004. Georgia's investment in post-secondary education has declined in recent years. From FY 2001 to 2006, total funding per full-time equivalent (FTE) student for technical, two-year, and four-year colleges has experienced double-digit declines, after adjusting for inflation.

While the challenges are great, Georgia has an exceptional system of public higher education in place to strengthen the skills and education levels of today's workforce. For example, Georgia provides technical certificates and diplomas virtually free through the HOPE grant, which provides full tuition, books and fees for residents attending the technical college system. Among the report's key education recommendations were:

• increase the capacity for adult basic education and post-secondary education,
• create need-based financial aid to assist low-income adults in affording post-secondary degree programs, and
• develop an outreach campaign targeted at non-traditional students.

Other findings and recommendations in education, economic development, and work and income supports can be found in the full report, available for download at www.gbpi.org. In disseminating the findings and recommendations, GBPI looks forward to a continued partnership with the national WPFP, as well as Georgia policymakers, advocates, and the business community, to research and promote the public systems tasked with expanding economic opportunity for Georgia's low-income working families.

For copies of the report, please contact Sarah Beth Gehl at sbgehl@gbpi.org or 404-420-1324 ext. 102.

Sarah Beth Gehl is deputy director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization engaged in research and education on the fiscal and economic health of the state.

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