A.M. ATL: Where’d the students go?

Morning, y’all! Someone finally paid my ransom and freed me from Disney World. Glad to be back, and I hope our A.M. ATL bench behaved themselves while I was gone. Happy Hanukkah, which started yesterday evening. Man, I could go for a latke right now. Are you a sour cream or applesauce person? Both? That’s the stuff.

Let’s get to it.

ENROLLMENT DECLINES PLAGUE ATLANTA SCHOOLS

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Student numbers are declining in metro Atlanta and across Georgia. Add in rising costs, and you’re left with a difficult equation: How can the hardest-hit schools stay open?

About 150 metro Atlanta schools have experienced an enrollment decline greater than 20% in the past 10 years.
Statewide, enrollment declined by nearly 30,000 students this fall alone. Over the last 10 years, student numbers have decreased nearly 3%.
In metro Atlanta, that figure’s higher. The Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton school systems have seen a roughly 10% decline over the last 10 years.
These trends tend to disproportionately affect economically disadvantaged students and schools. That’s also where the specter of school closures looms the largest.
The Atlanta school board already OK’d a plan that will close nine schools by the 2027-28 school year.

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GA FARMWORKERS SEE WAGES SLASHED

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Georgia’s agricultural industry relies on the work of tens of thousands of migrant farmworkers who are in the U.S. legally under the federal H-2A guest worker program.

Because of a recent Trump administration policy change, those workers have seen their hourly wages slashed by as much as 35% in recent months.
The federal government sets the wages for the H-2A program. This year, the Trump administration’s nationwide pay cuts chopped minimum wages from $16.08 down to $10.52.
A coalition of farmworkers filed suit against the change last month. They say the wage cuts don’t just hurt workers, they also hand power to Big Ag corporations and make things more difficult for smaller farms.

Georgia is near the top for H-2A workers

Georgia has been a top-two destination state for H-2A farmworkers for six of the past eight years, second only to Florida. The state welcomed more than 43,000 H-2A workers in 2024 alone.
Why does Georgia take in more workers than larger states? Experts say it’s partly because Georgia farms produce more labor-intensive crops.

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🧐 More State Election Board controversy: State investigators say a member of the dysfunctional group violated the board’s code of conduct by attending a Trump campaign rally last year at Georgia State University.

✍🏻 Gov. Brian Kemp will soon enter his final legislative session after two terms. Will he take any big risks with the last of his gubernatorial power or play it safe? The AJC’s Greg Bluestein weighs in.

A kind of cynicism and despair sets in. And rather than people turning toward each other, they are tempted to turn on each other. And that creates just the kind of atmosphere where strong men emerge promising to solve all of our problems in one fell swoop. We have to resist that and recognize that the way to our own wholeness and well-being is to affirm the humanity of our neighbors.

- Sen. Raphael Warnock, who urged people to find a common humanity after Saturday’s shooting at Brown University and Sunday’s mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia.

THE PHYSICAL PLEASURES OF THE NEWSPAPER

Credit: Courtesy of Jennifer Lunsford

When I was a young girl, one of the clearest hallmarks of Important Adulthood was knowing how to read the paper.

I mean the grown-up theater of it all: The graceful choreography of folding and unfolding punctuated by an authoritative snap; the air of effortless self-possession Important Adults exuded when they balanced a crisp bifold with a single hand.

As the print era of the AJC comes to a close (but another exciting era dawns), Atlantans got all romantic about what their paper ritual looked like over the years, from the thunk on the driveway to framed mementos and envelopes of yellowing clippings.

📰 Today’s Must-Read is a surprisingly sweet look at what parts of those fading rhythms of life stick with us the most.

NEWS BITES

Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year is ‘slop’

Yeah, that’s about right.

During the holidays, lighting candles and fireplaces is best done in moderation

Counterpoint: The holidays are, quite famously, not a time for moderation.

Falcons show pluck in thrilling win over Buccaneers

If our season is washed, at least we’re dragging the Bucs down with us.

Hallmark holiday movie fans flock to Connecticut’s quaint filming locations

Well, we have the Bavarian fever dream of Helen, and that’s way more fun.

ON THIS DATE

Dec. 15, 1991

Credit: AJC

Is Falcons success for the birds? Atlanta has clawed its way to the top of the Western Division of the National Football Conference, but no one has developed a Falcons’ screech or choreographed a menacing pecking motion to urge the team on. … The team is moving in virtual silence toward its first division title since 1980. … They play Seattle in their final regular season game today at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium before moving into the Georgia Dome next year …

Shoot, that’s what we need: More menacing pecking motions! Someone get Raheem Morris on the phone.

ONE MORE THING

Whilst in the Most Magical Place on Earth* I rode “It’s a Small World,” the one with the slow boats, singing child dolls and cloying earworm of a tune, 10 times in a row. Of the many revelations the experience inspired, the worst was that I could’ve tolerated it 10 times more.

*Disney World’s tagline is “The Most Magical Place on Earth,” while Disneyland is “The Happiest Place on Earth.” The Mouse does not like it when you get them mixed up. You don’t want to upset The Mouse, do you?

Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.

Until next time.

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