All students deserve excellent and equitable education opportunities. From school buildings to state capitols, IDRA has been busy at work with Georgian families, students and education leaders to advocate smart, fair and effective policies for the state of Georgia.
IDRA supports families, communities, and students – particularly students from families with limited incomes, students of color, English learners, and others – who demand access to great, well-funded schools. We advocate sustainable policies that accurately identify the cost of education for all students and fund all schools fairly.
Meet our policy team!
Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., Georgia Advocacy Director
Terrence Wilson, J.D., Regional Policy and Community Engagement Director
DeAndrea Byrd, Education Policy Fellow
Isabelle Philip, Education Policy Fellow
Get Resources and Tools on our Five Priority Issues
Resources
Changing Policy
IDRA Policy Brief: Discipline is Not Security – Dismantling Disparities Should be Top of Mind When Developing School Safety Policy in Georgia, by Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., February 2025
IDRA Data Map: Discipline Disparity in Georgia Schools
Factsheet: Dismantling Disparity in Georgia – Harder Schools are not Safer Schools, March 5, 2025
Factsheet: 6 Steps to Fully Fund Georgia Schools, March 7, 2025
The Promise Scholarship Does Not Promise to Protect Students from Discrimination – IDRA Testimony Against SB 152, Submitted by Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., to the Georgia House Education Committee, April 1, 2025 • See video
SB 74 Criminalizes Librarians and Creates Complicated Processes – IDRA Testimony Against SB 74, Submitted by Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., to the Georgia House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, March 19, 2025
Expanding the School-to-Prison Pipeline will Undermine School Safety – Testimony in Opposition to Senate Bill 61, Submitted by Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., to the Georgia House Judiciary Non-Civil Hong Subcommittee, March 18, 2025 • See video
SB 54 Disproportionately Impacts Our Most Vulnerable Students – IDRA Testimony Against Senate Bill 54, Submitted by DeAndrea Byrd, to the Georgia Senate Education and Youth Committee, March 5, 2025 • See video
Expanding the School-to-Prison Pipeline will Undermine School Safety – Testimony Against Senate Bill 61, Submitted by Makiah Lyons, J.D., to the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee, March 3, 2025 • See video
Non-Diverse, Inequitable, Uninclusive Schools Are No Good for Georgia’s Students – Testimony Presented to the Georgia Senate Higher Education Committee Hearing, February 27, 2025 • See video
Better Accountability Measures Needed in HB 328 – IDRA Testimony Against House Bill 328, Submitted by Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., to the Georgia House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Tax, February 25, 2025 • See video
Security Cannot Be Achieved Through Discipline – IDRA Testimony On HB 268, Submitted by Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., to the Georgia House Education Subcommittee on Policy, February 13, 2025 • See video
• See Previous Policy Comments and Testimony: 2022 and 2023 and 2024
Alerts
IDRA Georgia Education Policy Alert #6 – March 12, 2025
IDRA Georgia Education Policy Alert #5 – March 5, 2025
IDRA Georgia Education Policy Alert #4 – February 26, 2025
IDRA Georgia Education Policy Alert #3 – February 20, 2025
IDRA Georgia Education Policy Alert #2 – February 11, 2025
IDRA Georgia Education Policy Alert #1 – February 5, 2025
Engaging Communities
Join the Southern Education Equity Network online!
How to Push for AP African American Studies, August 2024
Communicating Effectively
Civil Rights Organizations Call on Georgia Lawmakers to Reject Senate Bill 120, March 5, 2025
IDRA joined with other civil rights organizations to demand that transgender students across Georgia be protected by their education leaders. On Wednesday, May 4, 2022, the Georgia High School Sports Association’s Executive Committee voted 61-0-1 to prohibit transgender students in our k12 public schools from participating in gendered sports teams that do not align with their gender assigned at birth. This decision impacts transgender, nonbinary, and LGBTQ+ students in your school district among many others. We are demanding that leaders across Georgia who have policies that are supportive of LGBTQ+ students join other athletic representatives in the GHSA and vote to reverse this policy this month. A version of this letter went out last week to the following school districts: Atlanta PS, Clayton County PS, Cobb County SD, DeKalb County SD, Fulton County S, Gwinnett County PS, and Savannah-Chatham County PSS.
Watch live stream of press conference featuring students who were denied the chance to testify against classroom censorship (HB 1084), March 29, 2022
Press Conference Alert: Georgia Youth Silenced by Legislators Speak Out on HB 1084 in Press Conference at Georgia State Capitol – HB 1084 defines race and racism as “divisive concepts” and bans discussion from Georgia K-12 classrooms. Students from all across Georgia were denied testimony in the public hearing. March 28, 2022
Georgia Students Need their Legislators to Make Smart Decisions – Stories about classroom censorship, corporal punishment, and more!, IDRA eNews, January 27, 2022
Priorities and Recommendations for the 2022 Georgia Legislative Session, by Terrence Wilson, J.D., & Mikayla Arciaga, M.A.Ed., November-December 2021
Knowledge is Power is IDRA’s national resource for educators and advocates to help you do your work for equity and excellence in education in the midst of classroom censorship policies.
