Gate City PTO (Samuel L. Jones Branch)

News Articles of Interest

Parents Hard Choices

Parents' hard choices
Bill mandates paid time off for school functions
Tammy Joyner - Staff
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Taking time off from work to attend a child's awards ceremony at school or a parent-teacher conference was no easy task for Sabrina Character.
Whenever she did, she faced disciplinary action or three days without pay. Character missed her son's graduation from elementary school because she couldn't get the time off.
"My mother went, and I have no picture," said Character, 33, a security guard and single mother of three. She now has a new security job with an Atlanta area firm that gives her more flexibility.
"They've been very accommodating," she said. "[Before] I often had to choose between being an employee or a mother. It makes it hard to work when you have to worry about 'Oh my god, my job's on the line.' "
Other working parents may get a little more flexibility if a bill set to be reintroduced in the Georgia Legislature next week becomes law.
The legislation, known as Time for School, would give parents up to eight hours a year of job-protected, paid time off to do volunteer work at their children's school or take part in other school-related activities.
It's the second time around for the bill, which ran into a few problems last year. It could face hurdles again this year from business owners who see the measure as intrusive and costly.
Proponents say parental involvement is key to a school's success, but that single parents who work and even those in two-income households are less likely to volunteer at their children's schools or to attend school meetings or ceremonies if their employers won't allow it.
They say improving a school's chances for success overall is good for everyone --- educators, employers and communities --- and it complements Gov. Sonny Perdue's and President Bush's efforts to fix the education system.
"You keep hearing everyone say we've got to improve the schools and conducts at the school," said Rep. Roger Bruce (D-Atlanta). "One way to do that is to have parents present and know what's going on."
Bruce, a vice president of human resources at Atlanta Life, knows firsthand the dilemma working parents face.
"They'd call up the day something was coming up at school, making sounds on the phone like they're sick. But they're doing that so they can spend time at the school," Bruce said. "Even the children are saying, 'We want our parents here,' and if the children are smart enough to see this, why aren't the adults?"
Bruce got the idea for the bill after speaking to a group of students at A. Philip Randolph Elementary School. He told them how a bill becomes a law.
Many of the children had parents who weren't able to take part in school activities. After discussing the issue in class, the students later approached Bruce about creating a bill that would help their parents.
"We have a volunteer program at our school, and many of them wanted to see their parents come and take part in the program. We talked about things they were concerned about, and that was their choice --- parental leave," said Janet Kennedy, the fifth-grade teacher at Randolph whose class was behind the bill's inception last year.
The bill had a rocky start at that time: Last-minute amendments diluted it. It languished after Bruce became severely ill.
He has since recovered and is hoping the same for the bill, which faces an overwhelmingly Republican legislature.
If Georgia lawmakers pass the bill, Georgia would join nine other states and Washington, D.C, which have some sort of state-mandated leave policies, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families, a nonpartisan advocacy group in Washington.
"Our workplaces and our family needs are badly out of sync," said Jodi Grant, the partnership's public policy director. "Americans are working harder than ever. Yet many literally risk losing their jobs if they need to take a few hours off for a parent-teacher conference.
"As a society that values our children, we must do much more to give our working parents flexibility and leave so that they can help their children succeed academically."
Bruce met last week with members of several community groups hoping to gain support for the bill.
"Last time when I put this in, it got bipartisan support in the House. It passed the House and fell short in the Senate," he said. "This is a nonpartisan bill. It should not be looked at as a Democratic or Republican bill. It's a children's bill. It should fit in with the governor's agenda on education and the president's No Child Left Behind law.
"Employers ought to embrace this because if you have better students, they grow up to be better workers and everybody benefits. Employers ought to see this as an investment in their future."
But business owner Victoria Braden doesn't see it that way.
"It sounds good, but is it a situation we need to legislate?" said Braden, a Norcross benefits consultant. "I have parents who work for me. If they need time off, am I going to give it to them? Absolutely. Why do we need this law?"
Aside from the government intrusion, Braden said the bill will cost employers time and money. Using her own company as an example, she estimates it would cost about $176 a year per worker --- not including lost productivity --- for a similar company that doesn't already offer such time off.
"When you look across the nation, we have states that have minimal laws that operate fine because they believe in the Golden Rule. They believe in 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you," " added Braden, a mother of six. "When you look at the states that have really high tax bases and really big problems, it's because they're trying to legislate everything."
Bruce said the bill will not hurt companies that already have some sort of leave policy.
"If they [employers] already do, we applaud them," Bruce said. "This bill won't change a thing for them."
PARENTAL LEAVE
Nine states and the District of Columbia require employers to grant working parents paid or unpaid time to participate in children's educational activities. The requirement falls under "small necessities laws," which let workers take leave in increments of less than a full day to attend to family matters such as school events. In most cases, the leave is in addition to the federal Family Medical Leave Act, because it does qualify under its guidelines. Here's what employers in the following states must do with regard to education-related time off:
> California --- Up to 40 hours a year; no more than eight hours a month. Applies to employers with 25 or more workers at the same location.
> Washington, D.C. --- Up to 24 hours a year. Applies to employers with 20 or more workers.
> Illinois --- Up to eight hours a year; no more than four hours a day. Applies to employers with 50 or more workers employed at least six consecutive months.
> Louisiana --- The employer may grant up to 16 hours a year. The state Family Medical Leave Act applies to companies with 25 or more employees.
> Massachusetts --- Up to 24 hours a year.
> Minnesota --- Up to 16 hours a year. Applies to employers with one or more workers who average 20 hours a week during the 12 months preceding the leave request.
> Nevada --- No maximum time. But the law prohibits an employer from firing a worker who goes to school conferences or is notified of an emergency involving a child.
> Vermont --- Up to 24 hours a year; up to four hours a month. Applies to companies with 15 or more employees who have been employed for an average of 30 hours a week in one year.
> Rhode Island --- Up to 10 hours a year. Applies to any employee who has worked for at least 12 consecutive months.
> North Carolina --- Up to four hours a year. Applies to all employers.
Source: National Partnership for Women and Families

More Peachcare Information

LEGISLATURE '05: More PeachCare scrutiny sought Officials want to check incomes to ensure that families qualify Andy Miller - Staff Wednesday, January 19, 2005 The state wants to check the incomes of parents of 190,000 children who get PeachCare health benefits to make sure they meet the program's requirements. Officials with the Department of Community Health outlined plans to contain costs in the state's program for uninsured children during a legislative budget hearing Tuesday overflowing with lobbyists and patient advocates. Now parents simply report their income when applying for PeachCare coverage for their uninsured children. To enroll in PeachCare, a family of four can make no more than $44,302 a year. States that verified parents' income saw a 1 percent to 3 percent membership drop in their programs for uninsured children, said the agency's commissioner, Tim Burgess. For PeachCare, that would mean that 1,900 to 5,700 children would lose coverage. DCH officials said last week that the agency would seek a new law that would give its board the power to decide who is eligible for PeachCare. The Department of Community Health also must cut costs for Medicaid and the state employees' insurance plan to offset huge budget shortfalls. The state's appropriations for those programs will not cover the program's growth. Burgess said the benefits plan that covers more than 630,000 state employees and teachers, their dependents and retirees will charge smokers $9 per month more for coverage. And members whose spouses have health coverage available through their jobs --- and remain on the state's plan --- will pay $50 more per month. Such changes are similar to provisions of private employers' health plans, Burgess said. State Health Benefit Plan premiums will increase 13 percent. That's about $8.45 more per month for individual coverage and $25.78 more for family coverage under the most popular plan. That plan would not devour all of state employees' 2 percent raise if their income is $20,000 or more, Burgess said. Budget reductions for the state's largest health program, Medicaid, will total $130 million, with hospitals hit the hardest. But Burgess said that though some hospitals may be pushed to the brink of closure, "I don't believe these reductions [by themselves] will cause a hospital closing." Rep. Mickey Channell (D-Greensboro), a Medicaid expert, said he was troubled by the financial impact on hospitals. "Rural hospitals are hanging on by their fingernails now," and a higher percentage of their patients are on Medicaid, he said. Medicaid covers 1.4 million low-income and disabled Georgians.

Put Academics First

NEW ATTITUDES: Real-world epiphany puts academics first
Jordan Chester - For the Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
I was not always on the pro side of the argument that too much emphasis is placed on high school athletics. In fact, I believe I was one of the guppies lured into the net.
I was a three-year letterman at Statesboro High School and an All-State performer as a pitcher. I received a baseball scholarship to Young Harris College, where I began last fall.
Throughout high school, I did not reach even half of my academic potential in the classroom. I did only what was necessary and never worried about failing or even receiving extremely low passing grades. I believed that baseball was important and that baseball would carry me through life.
Even when I struggled in my classes, I believed I would receive the "athlete's lean," as it's called. This is when an athlete is on the border of failing or passing a class. It is quite well-known that the athlete will get over the mark and never under.
When trying to decide my major for college, I told my mother that I wanted to become a lawyer. She gave me a blank expression. "You have to make good grades to get into law school," she said.
I entered Young Harris with a new mind-set on academics. I was going to work hard to prepare myself on the field, but I was going to work harder in the classroom in order to get the grades necessary for law school.
The night before classes began, the baseball coach called a meeting. It was a basic introduction to all the freshmen and a welcome back talk to sophomores. My mind soon turned off from baseball as I heard the coach's words: "The most important thing for you to do here is to prepare yourself to play baseball at a four-year school."
Even though the coach soon after talked about performance in the classroom, I could still not believe what I was hearing. I thought I had been released from a world where athletics was superior to academics, but here I was hearing that it was more important to train for a four-year institution on the field than in the classroom.
I gave up baseball two days later, moving on to commit myself as a student. Even though I was no longer a part of the team, I was still in a dorm hall that consisted only of baseball players. It was odd to see the difference in how we approached school.
My suitemate told me that he had a 1.8 grade-point average that first semester. Was he upset? No, he was bragging about his grade-point average because it was a tenth of a point higher than what was necessary to be eligible for the spring season.
I left Young Harris College after my first semester with a 3.57 grade-point average, feeling as good as I ever had walking off the pitcher's mound.
Jordan Chester attends Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.

Links

Parenting Magazine
Atlanta Parent
Atlanta Journal Constitution