TIFTON — Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday he continues to work and develop the policies he’s fought for – as well as plan new projects in the run-up to the primary election this spring and the general election in the fall.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Tifton Gazette, Kemp reviewed education, policies to battle violent crime, bolstering the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, supporting small and local businesses, boosting rural broadband.

Kemp was in Tifton for the grand opening of the Tifton Coca-Cola United plant.

Chief among Kemp’s current policies is a continued but increased focus on education. Moving forward, the governor said he has fully budgeted funding for nearly all levels of education, ranging from kindergarten to college and technical college.

The plan would include scholarships for criminal justice majors and truck drivers, specifically focusing on the technical college system.

Kemp has budgeted the remaining $2,000 of the $5,000 pay raise for starting educators. The raise was promised in 2021 but the start of the pandemic led to educators only receiving $3,000 at that time.

In addition, bills for a teacher pipeline and teacher retirement are being prepared, the former of which would aid in encouraging more people to become involved in the education field, while the latter will allow retired educators to return to work in high-need areas after taking a determined grace period.

Kemp’s education policies also explore the other side of education; his administration is working on a parental rights bill that will give a child’s parents the final say in how their child will be treated in public schools regarding such topics as wearing masks, indoctrination and critical race theory.

Educators are being taken into consideration for this bill, he said, and are being consulted to ensure the final result does not restrict their ability to teach.

Kemp’s administration plans to address gang activity and violent crime in Georgia communities, and is working to pass constitutional carry while supporting local and state police forces. Police officers were recently granted a $1,000 bonus to reimburse any costs sustained during the pandemic.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is slated to receive funding to hire additional forensics scientists and aid the bureau in working with local communities and conducting their own prosecutions. The Attorney General will receive funding for similar improvements.

With 35 years of personal experience with small businesses and a campaign initially focused on it, Kemp said he will continue providing support to small and local businesses.

Kemp stated previously that he believes small and local business form the backbone of the economy, and as Georgia’s economy continues to boom, he said he is eager to provide as much support as he can.

“It’s been an incredible economy that we’re in; we’ve had a record year for economic development, especially for rural Georgia – 74% of our projects,” Kemp said. “Last year, new projects were outside the 10 metro counties; we’re on pace to break the record that we had last year, and we’re still doing a lot of things in rural Georgia and the south and southwest part of the state, which is very exciting.”

About $1.6 billion of taxpayer money is scheduled to be refunded to Georgia taxpayers, a project that Kemp states is meant to provide much-needed aid to small businesses.

The governor is working with the state House of Representatives to cut down on the state income tax and has ensured that smaller businesses have more access to government contracts to compete with larger businesses.

The governor has provided more than 80 grants to areas across the state in dire need of water system improvements, and added he continues working to provide full broadband to rural areas across Georgia.

Both projects are still in the works, with some areas of Georgia needing broadband installation and many recipients of the water system grants awaiting their funds but Kemp assures he will continue to work until Georgia has these problems solved.

“It’s going to take years to do rural broadband. We want to continue growing jobs in Georgia – we have a lot of work to do in rural Georgia,” Kemp said. “We’ve done great, better than I expected, but we’ve got to keep it going. We also have to keep turning out an educated workforce through our university system, our technical college system, and our K-12 career academies, and other things CTAE, to really have that workforce in the future.

“That’s why we’ve been successful, that’s why companies are coming here, it’s why you see wages are going up here: great opportunities. We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas there, to keep safe communities and keep our economies open and growing.”