Bryce Berry outside the Georgia State Capitol on Nov. 21, 2024. Berry will be the youngest lawmaker and the only active teacher in the legislature when he takes office in January. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Bryce Berry is among the fresh faces newly elected to Georgia’s House of Representatives. He’ll take office in January, but he’s already familiar with the challenge of meeting the unique needs of individuals within his purview.
Berry is a 7th grade math teacher at a public school in southwest Atlanta.
“They tease me. They call me Representative Berry. But they were very excited,” Berry says about his students.
Only about 10 years older than his students, 23-year-old Berry is among the youngest state lawmakers elected in Georgia’s history.
Lawmakers who are also active teachers are unheard of in Georgia’s state legislature. His experience as an educator, combined with his background as a community organizer, has primed him for his new role in the state House.
Bryce Berry addresses the State School Superintendent’s decision to block an AP African American Studies course at a joint Senate and House press conference at the Georgia State Capitol on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Running for office
In the November general election, the Democrat Berry unseated incumbent Republican Mesha K. Mainor in District 56, who had switched political parties during her last term. District 56 spans the west side of Atlanta. Berry received about 84% of the vote and Mainor 16%.
“My whole campaign was premised off my students,” Berry says. “They’re my North Star for quite literally everything I do, everything I would decide on.”
Berry, a Morehouse grad, made the decision to run for office during the previous school year after learning what two students at the school were experiencing at home.
One student’s family had been evicted after being late on rent by about 10 days, he says. Another student witnessed their father get shot and carried on as if it were a normal occurrence.
Both situations, he says, are “direct cause and effect of state policy.” Berry cites a lack of protection for renters and lax gun laws for enabling those situations.
On a more personal level, he says his own experiences growing up mirror those of his students, and he can see his younger self in them.
“I’ve been blessed enough that I made it here and I want that same opportunity and outcomes for my students,” he says.
Community organizing
Berry was born and raised in St. Louis. He was raised by a single mother who he says sometimes worked three jobs to support them. His life was changed in 2014.
“When I was 13, Mike Brown was killed a block away from me,” Berry says.
The fatal police shooting in Ferguson was a catalyst for teenaged Berry getting involved in community organizing. He was active during the early days of the Black Lives Matter movement and continued organizing in social and political spaces into adulthood.
Bryce Berry outside the Georgia State Capitol on Nov. 21, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
“When I hear the word organize, it’s not a one off, it’s not a fleeting presence but a consistent touch point with people,” says Democratic Rep. Phil Olaleye of Atlanta.
Berry was a legislative aide to Olaleye during the previous legislative session and led Olaleye’s community engagement efforts. His “boots on the ground” approach to the work was reminiscent of community organizing, Olaleye says, and that experience will help him as a lawmaker.
“I think that’s a strength that he will bring,” Olaleye says. “Someone who’s great with people who is focused on meeting people where they are and doing it in unconventional ways. He’s gonna bring a voice and an energy that makes our caucus better.”
Legislative priorities
Berry isn’t a newcomer to state politics. He was the president of the Young Democrats of Georgia from 2021-2023 and worked as the deputy political director of the Democratic Party of Georgia. He has volunteered in campaigns for President Joe Biden, Sen. Jon Ossoff, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and others.
His legislative priorities for the upcoming session are centered on education. Georgia’s Quality Basic Education Program (QBE) is at the top of mind for him. The QBE is a formula that determines funding for public schools and teacher salaries but has remained essentially unchanged since its creation in 1985, according to the Georgia Recorder.
Berry says he will support updating the QBE to be more equitable and reflect the current day and age we live in.
“Schools with higher poverty, schools with lower test scores, they might get a little more resources and more money. That’s not the case in Georgia, because we have not updated that formula to include things like poverty and testing and Title I and things like that,” Berry says.
He also wants to raise the minimum teacher salary to $65,000 and improve school infrastructure to address the dilapidated conditions that even he has to teach in sometimes.
“If no one’s going to be there for my students, if the state is not going to see my students for the value that they bring and the potential that they bring, then hell, it’s going to be me. If we don’t have state legislators that will champion them, I’m going to be the one,” he says.
In January, the Atlanta Board of Education swore in its first active teacher in its 150-year history, Alfred “Shivy” Brooks. Brooks met Berry while protesting in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020. Their relationship as friends and peers has grown since then.
“He, I think is the definition of who deserves to be at the table,” Brooks says about Berry. “I believe he’s going to be a courageous voice.”
He says that Berry is positioned to succeed as a lawmaker because he has embraced the “selfless public service” of being a teacher.
“I think it’s the insights of being an educator, the intersections of what it takes to be an educator and who we interact with that I think uniquely position us to like be able to give voice to what the community actually needs on the on the ground level,” Brooks says.
Now in the midst of his freshman orientation as a state lawmaker, Berry has mixed feelings: anxious, excited and overwhelmed. He still has to work out the logistics of teaching during the legislative session, which lasts for 40 days beginning in January.
Being the first active teacher to serve, there’s not a model to follow.
He wants to stay present in the classroom as much as possible, but he’s anticipating having to take a leave of four to six weeks.
“My students, I hope they understand because, you know, it’s a big deal,” he says. “I would love to say my teacher was a state representative or something when I was a kid.”
