By Jill Nolin | Editor
“We’re at the point where things are about to shift.” — Valdosta Superintendent Craig Lockhart, referring to the state of local school district finances.
Some school districts in Georgia are eliminating vacant positions as enrollment falls and property tax growth flattens. Others are dipping into savings accounts. (Justin Taylor/The Current GA/CatchLight Local)
EDUCATION
By Jeff Amy
After years of spending rapidly increasing revenues on new programs and pay increases, many of Georgia’s school districts are beginning to tighten their belts.
Most of the state’s 180 traditional K-12 public school districts have set spending plans for the budget year that began July 1. While a few are still giving pay raises, others are eliminating vacant positions as enrollment falls and property tax growth flattens. Many districts are dipping into savings accounts that ballooned during the pandemic to avoid spending cuts, at least for one more year.
Marcye Scott, the daughter of the late Congressman David Scott, qualifies to run in a special election to finish the rest of his term. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
SPECIAL ELECTION
By Alander Rocha
Voters in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District are voting in a special election to fill the remainder of late Congressman David Scott’s term, whose seat was vacant after he died in late April.
Three Democrats and two Republicans are vying to represent the metro Atlanta seat that was drawn to be a safe blue seat. One former candidate, Democrat Tony Brown, will still appear on the ballot, according to a spokesperson from the state Secretary of State, but he was disqualified and votes for him will not be counted.
A mail-in ballot dropbox on P Street Northwest in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
ELECTIONS
By David Lightman
President Donald Trump’s latest shot in a relentless war on how elections are conducted has triggered enormous concern among voting rights activists.
As of Thursday night, the U.S Election Assistance Commission has no members. The White House in an email dismissed Democrats Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland. Republican Christy McCormick resigned, and GOP member Donald Palmer left earlier this year.
Trump’s move guts, for now, a four-member board created in 2002 after the chaos that dogged the 2000 presidential election. That result came down to the vote count in Florida, where the question was debated of whether “hanging chads” on ballots counted or not.
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ICYMI FROM THE RECORDER
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