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(June 2012) Arkansas policymakers face a potential $1.3 billion budget deficit in the state’s Medicaid program despite receiving $1 billion in federal stimulus funds for “health and human services” since 2009, according to remarks by officials and public records.   Gov. Mike Beebe and state Human Services Department Director John Selig said last month that […]

“College algebra is in the way of so many kids.  They can’t (pass) it and they drop out of school.  I’m not saying ‘dumb down the curriculum.’  I’m just saying, “Let’s get stuff you can use for life.’”  Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board member David Leech1   “Implement high expectations in math for all students. Allow all eighth-graders the chance […]

“The long-term liabilities of the ARKids First program should be identified.” Policy Foundation memos, 2006   (May 5, 2012) Remarks by Arkansas officials this week have pushed Medicaid, a government medical insurance program, to the policy forefront.  State Human Services Department Director John Selig said Arkansas will have to either slash Medicaid or increase spending due to a […]

(April 2012) The state Department of Education and the Little Rock School District, Arkansas’ largest district, have no plan to respond to deflation in property values, a problem in states like California, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Policy Foundation.   Deflation in property values is a macroeconomic problem […]

We seek “intellectual honesty and complete openness in reporting academic progress and ‘the state’ of public education…”  Policy Foundation, 1998, Murphy Commission project.   (April 2012) Public school administrators oftentimes seem oblivious to a 21st century economic reality: their consumer base includes businesses and entrepreneurs trying to compete in a global economy where standards rule. The Arkansas […]

(March 2012) The number of Arkansas homeschooled and private school students outnumber Arkansas Education Association (AEA) members by a ratio of more than 2-to-1, public records show.   Arkansas students in home school totaled 16,3031 in 2010-11, according to the Arkansas Department of Education.  Arkansas private school enrollment was 19,3752 in 2010-11, according to the Arkansas Nonpublic School […]

(February 13, 2012) The Policy Foundation has joined a legal challenge to nationalized medical insurance, joining a coalition of national and state think tanks and legislators in a friend-of-the-court brief filed today with the U.S. Supreme Court. The amicus curiae brief, filed by the Cato Institute1, the Pacific Legal Foundation, Competitive Enterprise Institute, 14 organizations including the […]

A financial analysis model should be created to augment the existing Arkansas Public School System Computer Network (APSCN) accounting/reporting system, with the adequate appropriation of funds. (Murphy Commission, Policy Foundation project, 1998 recommendation)   (February 2012) The creation of a uniform accounting system for Arkansas K-12 school districts is one reform of the post-Lakeview policy […]

“The State Board of Education should authorize the (Education) Director…to expend department funds for any salary-related bonus or merit raise-appropriately certified and capped as to percentage amounts-to any district…” (Murphy Commission, Policy Foundation project, 1998 recommendation)   (February 2012) Performance pay has advanced from Murphy Commission recommendation to experiment in Arkansas’ largest school district to […]

(January 2012) Eighteen states—more than one-third of the U.S.—have school choice programs serving students and parents attending private schools.1  But Arkansas does not have any private choice programs two decades after Wisconsin launched a key program in 1990 in Milwaukee.   School choice programs date to 19th Century New England2 but most state programs inclusive of private schools […]