Featured Articles

Little Rock School District Taken Over by State

(February 2015) The Little Rock School District's academic problems were identified in a 1999 Policy Foundation study.

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Convert Failing Schools to Charters, Advance School Choice

(February 2015) Failing Arkansas charter schools are closed. Six failing Little Rock public schools in academic distress remain open. They should be converted into charters starting with the 2015-16 school year. Little Rock students should also have the freedom to attend independent schools with tax credits or vouchers, education reforms adopted in 23 other states.

Defenders of the educational status quo attack charter conversions after takeovers. But a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper, "Testing School Takeovers in New Orleans and Boston," found that pupils who remain enrolled in a school that is converted from public to charter showed "substantial gains in both cities."

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Sixty Percent of Students at Distressed Little Rock High Schools Less Than Proficient

(February 2015) Sixty percent of students at three Little Rock high schools in academic distress are less than proficient in the category of literacy, according to results reported by the state Department of Education.

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Documents: Outstanding Tax Liens Total $735 Million

(January 26, 2015) Documents obtained by the Policy Foundation from the state Department of Finance and Administration show total outstanding tax liens number 178,612 and total $735,470,927, while policymakers raise taxes and fail to fully reimburse counties for housing state inmates in county jails.

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Arkansas' Non-Competitive Corporate Income Tax Rate

(January 2015) Fiscal action taken by the 90th General Assembly has focused on income and capital gains tax rates, while ignoring Arkansas' non-competitive top corporate tax rate, among the highest in the region.

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More Than Half of Arkansas' Counties Have Lost Population in the 21st Century

(January 2015) Forty (40) Arkansas counties--more than half of the state's 75 counties--have lost population since the 2000 Census, U.S. Census Bureau data show.

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Repeal Medicaid Expansion

(December 2014) The Medicaid expansion that occurred in Arkansas in 2013-14 is fatally flawed because it fails to identify the program's unfunded liabilities. The term "private option" is highly inaccurate. A true private option would use consumers private funds to purchase medical insurance from private and non-profit insurance companies. Instead, the expansion uses government funds to purchase medical insurance from these entities.

Opponents should use their leverage to repeal the program, and insist proponents identify Medicaid's unfunded liabilities, support caps and limits, and answer detailed questions about spending metrics before any new action is considered.

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Education Reform Recommendations

The most callused aspect of the (Arkansas) education monopoly is that it willingly and deliberately forces children--except those whose parents have wealth--to attend bad schools. And it does so with financial resources taken from parents already struggling financially and at the expense of their ability to choose a better school for their sons and daughters.

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Fiscal Policy Recommendations

Prudence should guide fiscal policy. Public services should be provided in an efficient, cost-effective manner. Savings should be used to encourage economic growth and make Arkansas competitive in terms of jobs creation and income growth. The Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project spent three years (1996-1998) studying state government before advancing ideas to make government cost-effective and accountable to taxpayers. Several ideas have advanced, including a performance-based budgeting pilot, and income and capital gains tax cuts. But more needs to be done.

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New Univ. of Oklahoma Press Book Cites
Policy Foundation on Arkansas' Economy

(November 2014) A new book from the Univ. of Oklahoma Press cites the Policy Foundation on economic conditions and tax rates along the Arkansas-Texas border, one example of an intranational borderland, according to author Dr. Derek R. Everett, adjunct professor at Colorado State University.

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Arkansas Jobs Decline, Food Stamps Increase

(October 2014) Arkansas payroll employment has declined, and the number of households and persons receiving food stamps has increased since 2007, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau data.

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Political Wishes, Economic Realities

(October 2014) An oft-stated goal of Arkansas public officials is to increase the number of students graduating from state colleges and universities. Arkansas Department of Higher Education Director Shane Broadway, a state legislator for 14 years (1997-2010), is closely associated with this idea.

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Arkansas Term Limits

(September 2014) Four conclusions are presented in this research report, "Term Limits in Arkansas: Demographics, Age and Occupation." More women and African-Americans are serving in the General Assembly in the term limits era. There has been little change in Arkansas legislators' median age under term limits. The number of legal professionals serving in the General Assembly has decreased since term limits took effect. The number of other occupations has increased.

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Seventeen Arkansas Legislators Seek Medicaid Unfunded Liabilities Estimate

(September 2014) Seventeen Arkansas state legislators have formally requested a Medicaid unfunded liabilities estimate from the state Department of Human Services.

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Policy Foundation Files Public Comment on Medicaid Expansion

(September 2014) A proposed amendment by Arkansas Medicaid expansion proponents is inadequate because it fails to estimate unfunded liabilities, according to a public comment submitted to authorities by the Policy Foundation.

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Policy Foundation Identified Failing School Districts in 2005-2008

(August 2014) The state Department of Education's recent decision to classify 26 Arkansas public schools as academically distressed is too late for a generation of poor and economically disadvantaged students in seven "failing" districts identified by the Policy Foundation in the 2005-2008 period.

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The U.S. Marine Corps & Activity Based Costing

(August 2014) The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), for 15 years has effectively used a fiscal reform that could save Arkansas taxpayers millions of dollars in scarce economic resources. The reform is activities based costing (ABC), defined by the Murphy Commission as an accounting system that "allocates dollars as they're spent in agencies--in a consistent and uniform manner--to defined service activities and administrative and support functions."

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Conway Forum to Examine Dr. Milton Friedman's Education Reform Ideas

(July 2014) A Conway forum hosted by the Policy Foundation will consider the education reform ideas of the late Dr. Milton Friedman (1912-2006), the 1976 Nobel laureate in Economics.

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Income Tax Cut Emerges as Issue

(July 2014) Arkansas state government's $78.7 million general-revenue surplus in the fiscal year (2013-14) that ended June 30 illustrates it is possible to cut income tax rates without cutting state programs.

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Weak Recovery: 45 Arkansas Counties Lose Jobs

(June 2014) One sure sign that current administration economic policies are not working is the widespread decline in Arkansas payroll employment, the broadest indicator at the state level. Jobs data released this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show employment in 45 Arkansas counties-more than half of the state-was lower at the end of 2013 than five years ago (June 2009) when the recovery started.

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Private School Choice on the Agenda

(May 2014) Three states bordering Arkansas have approved student private school choice programs, while legislators in a fourth are eyeing the reform.

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Post-Murphy Commission Tax Cuts

(April 2014) The Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project, spent three years reviewing Arkansas' tax system before publishing two studies in 1998 that concluded rates were a factor affecting economic development.

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States Without Capital Gains Taxes

(April 2014) States without capital gains taxes are creating new jobs at a higher rate than the national average in the current economic expansion, according to a Policy Foundation analysis of payroll employment data.

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CNBC Report On Arkansas

(April 23, 2014) CNBC, a financial news network with an international following cites a private report that found Arkansas ranks 50th in the nation for taxpayer return on investment in six main categories with 27 metrics.

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Arkansas Term Limits: More Women in General Assembly

(March 2014) The number of female General Assembly members has nearly tripled since the people of Arkansas approved term limits in 1992.

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Emergency Room Visits & Nationalized Medical Insurance

(March 2014) Nationalized medical insurance proponents, at the federal and Arkansas levels claim their policies will lead to a reduction in hospital emergency room visits as the uninsured obtain coverage. Yet emergency room incidence in Massachusetts, oft-cited by proponents, remains greater than the U.S. average, data reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation show.

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Arkansas School Choice Market Expands

(February 2014) The Arkansas school choice market expanded from an estimated 59,860 K-12 students in 2011to 66,627 in 2013, records show. The growing niche market includes students participating in public school choice programs to flee failing Arkansas public schools. It also includes homeschooled students, and those enrolled at private and charter schools.

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Arkansas Term Limits: Fewer Attorneys in General Assembly

(February 2014) The number of General Assembly members who list "attorney" or "lawyer" as their current or former profession has declined by nearly one-third since the people of Arkansas approved term limits in 1992.

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One of the Largest School Districts in Arkansas

(February 2014) Most articles filed by education reporters focus on traditional K-12 public school districts. An unreported story is the increase in home-schooling, part of the alternative Arkansas school choice market.

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Long-Term Economic Reasoning & Arkansas Medicaid Expansion

(January 2014) Arkansas Medicaid's unfunded liabilities are an overlooked issue in the current controversy around expanding the program. The state Department of Human Services (DHS) terms Medicaid "a pay-as-you-go program for which budgets and appropriations are done each year." Yet Medicaid's unfunded liabilities, in terms of economics, cannot be ignored.

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Adverse Selection

(January 2014) Proponents of nationalized medical insurance long ago conceded the problem of adverse selection, i.e., buyers and sellers with asymmetric information create an unsustainable risk pool with few healthy and many unhealthy enrollees. The federal Affordable Care Act tries to address adverse selection via the individual mandate, limited open enrollment, moderate fines and enrollee subsidies. Proponents are preoccupied with enrollment figures because a minimum of 2.7 million healthy young Americans must enroll to create a sustainable risk pool under the 2010 act.

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Mission Statement

The Arkansas Policy Foundation is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that analyzes the impact of public policy on Arkansas and makes recommendations.

The Foundation emphasizes the importance of tax policy and education reform.

Principles of tax policy: Arkansas would benefit from comprehensive, pro-growth reform; Arkansans are not under-taxed; taxes and rates do matter to entrepreneurs; dynamic scoring of tax changes and effects provides benefits.

Education reform: The Foundation seeks intellectual honesty and complete openness in reporting the lack of academic progress in Arkansas' school system.

The Foundation encourages citizenship.

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