 In 1784, Franklin County became Georgia's eighth official county, encompassing a huge amount of territory. But part of it was claimed by South Carolina, and a large piece was broken off in 1796 to become Jackson County. In 1801, the Georgia Assembly decided to grant some land to the newly established Franklin College in southeast Jackson, thereby creating Clark County. A town started growing up around Franklin College, which was called Athens. This funky little town kept growing as more colleges were founded and joined with Franklin College to become a university. At this point, Athens was outgrowing even the Clark County seat which was in Watkinsville at that time. In 1872, the seat was officially moved to Athens to reflect its growing importance. But that left the people of Watkinsville a little bitter, so they petitioned the state for their own county which they got in 1875. They named this new county Ocone for the river along which the new border was drawn. This left Clark a pitifully small land area, the smallest in Georgia, and as Athens kept growing, it wasn't hard to eventually take over the whole county and that was formalized by unification in 1991. That leaves us with two counties who are neighbors but who have been growing along two different paths ever since the University of Georgia was founded. So how big had these differences become? 200 years later, let's take a look. This is Athens and Ocone County compared. The average county nationwide takes up a bit over 1,100 square miles. In Georgia, we pack them in a little tighter at 362 square miles on average. By these standards, Athens' Clark is a lightweight, clocking in at only 116. Ocone is bigger but still fairly small at 184 square miles. Even if the two were added back together, a reunified Clark would still be below average for a Georgia county. But Athens packs a lot into a small package. As of 2010, Athens had 992 people per square mile, making ACC over 5 times denser than the mostly rural Ocone. Athens has been growing at a faster rate as well. The whole county of Ocone isn't up quite yet to the population that just the city of Athens had before unification. Now a quick peek at the demographics. As we all know, Ocone has more people of the white variety and Athens has more black people about 5 times the percentage and Athens also has twice the percentage of Latinx people. This is another big point of difference between the two counties. Athens has a five-year poverty estimate at 34% much higher than the Georgia average of 14%. Ocone? Let's just say they're doing alright down there. Their median household income is over $77,000. All of these stats tend to correlate with differences in political opinion as well. Athens votes for Democratic presidents at more than double the rate of Ocone. But Ocone consistently beats Athens in turnout. Moving on to economic growth, I've often heard from people concerned about Athens businesses moving to Ocone. This is definitely happening in some areas of town, but as a whole, which county is actually growing faster? Before we see the numbers, let's find out what they're saying on the street. Do you think that businesses are growing faster in Ocone County or in Athens? I really don't know about that. I'd say probably Ocone with the new Epsbridge Parkway and everything. I'm not sure they're growing at all. I think they're shrinking actually. Oh, for sure, Athens. UGA, Athens, what is going to be high on rent? So Ocone outskirt just to be on the safe side. Seems about even. If you look at sales tax collection, Athens seems to maybe be growing a hair faster than Ocone. Hmm, is that right? Computer, adjust for inflation. Seems about even now, I think. Um, normalize to 100% and zoom in. There it is. This may be the reason why some people think Ocone is growing faster. It is as a percentage of their total. Ocone fell further in the recession, relatively speaking, and grew quicker in the recovery. Being from Athens, that doesn't bother me because Athens economy is so much bigger overall. Well, let's move on because it's time to talk about education. Hey, people on the street, I want to know which county has the better school system, do you think? I think they're better in Ocone. I think the schools in Ocone are better. I really don't know. I'm not sure. I don't have kids here. Ocone. I would have to say Ocone. So that was unanimous. But what do the facts say? Well, the first thing we should find out are what kinds of students are going into each school system. People of color make up 80% of Athens-Clarke County students as opposed to only about 20% in Ocone. What's the big difference? 46% of Athens-Clarke students are economically disadvantaged compared to only about 9% in Ocone. Already, we can tell that the kids in Clark probably have some challenges that they just don't have to deal with in Ocone. Do you think going hungry or not getting as much help from your parents might lead to lower test scores? Yeah, yeah, it does. It turns out that academic achievement is very correlated to income. This is not the fault of anyone teacher or school or even school system. But this is a comparison video. So let's take a look at our kids' reading levels. Ocone kids start with a big edge over their Athens-Clarke counterparts. And that advantage is maintained as they get older. That's true, even though we spend thousands more per student every year here in Athens than they do in Ocone. Our graduation rate is worse, and our college enrollment rate is even worseer. Overall, Athens-Clarke gets a D from the state government, whereas Ocone gets a solid B. Does this mean we have bad schools in Clark County? I don't think that our Clark County schools are bad. I would never use that term to describe our school. Like you should get, president of the Clark County School Board, so glad you could join us. So I want to be clear that I'm not speaking on behalf of Clark County School Board. OK, you're just speaking for yourself. I understand. How do you think parents should use these assessments from the state government in deciding where their children should go to school? As parents, typically we want to do what's right for our child. As with anything, we know assessments are, they are limited. And so I would encourage parents to look at a variety of different things, like go into our schools, talk to our teachers, speak with our principals, speak with the, you know, thousands of people that have their children here. So gather as much information as you can to make a more informed decision about where to place your child. If we're only making decisions based on like what my friends told me or what I've seen based on like state ratings or what I see in the media or based on my peers, then ultimately, you know, it actually just reinforces that narrative. You know, the key question is, what am I moving from? Like, what am I looking for? And what am I afraid will happen if I send my child here, right? Because we know like students who have, who generally have support from home, like earlier interventions, access to resources, those students tend to do well regardless. So what exactly are people running for and away from? I think sometimes these state boards, they serve as a way to lessen cognitive dissonance for parents to make the decision to send their kids elsewhere. Please subscribe for more videos about local news, state politics and national policy. Thanks for watching. I'll see you on the next one.