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(July 2011) Total national payroll employment growth in the current and preceding expansion are the weakest in the postwar era due to Manufacturing losses that started under former President Bill Clinton.    Employment has grown less than half of one percent (0.40)1 since June 2009 when the last recession ended.2  Employment was lower in November 2003 two years after […]

(July 15, 2011) U.S. and Arkansas payroll employment has increased slightly since the recession’s end two years ago, though few sectors are growing.   The following U.S. employment sectors have expanded since June 2009:   ∙         Education & Health Services                                 +749,000 ∙         Professional & Business Services                        +724,000 ∙         Mining                                                                     +100,000 ∙        Other Services                                                         +75,000 ∙         Trade, Transportation & […]

(July 2011) The education reform ideas of Dr. Milton Friedman (1912-2006), the 1976 Nobel Economics laureate will be the topic of a July 29 forum hosted by the Policy Foundation at the Faulkner County Library (1900 Tyler) in Conway.   Dr. Friedman, a 1928 graduate of Rahway, N.J. Public High School, later earned economics degrees […]

“Fiscal management is as important as academics in evaluating any school district’s performance.”  Arkansas Policy Foundation report, “A performance analysis of the Little Rock School District” (May 2000)   (May 2011) Eleven years ago this month the Policy Foundation published a report on the Little Rock School District that found “10 years of rising revenues and […]

(May 2011) One year ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated “the creation of a national high-risk insurance pool will result in roughly 375,000 people gaining coverage in 2010, increasing national health spending by $4 billion.”  But the number of enrollees totaled only 12,437 on Feb. 1, including only 147 in Arkansas.   […]

“Demand intellectual honesty and complete openness in reporting academic progress and “the state” of public education, this to be implemented through a comprehensive public school accountability system … (and) broaden Arkansas’ inadequate charter school law to allow for the development of new start-up charter schools.” Policy Foundation, Murphy Commission project, 1998.   (April 2011) Policy Foundation […]

                    (March 14, 2011) Students and teachers at Arkansas charter schools are less likely to face weapons incidents and assaults than their counterparts at traditional public schools, according to a Policy Foundation analysis of 2009 school performance report cards. (1)   The analysis compared the percentage of discipline incidents in charter schools with those in […]

(March 2011) Arkansas Medicaid program costs have tripled since 1996, increasing from $1.3 billion to $4.1 billion (2010), with an increase of another $416 million projected for 2011. (1)   The number of unduplicated beneficiaries nearly doubled from 356,053 to 755,607. The average cost of treating a beneficiary rose from $3,651 to $5,429.  The number of […]

INTRODUCTION  The Policy Foundation has advanced Arkansas virtual education for nearly a decade.   Virtual School Application and Charter Expansion (2002-11)   The Foundation submitted an application to establish an Arkansas virtual school for K-12 students in 2002.  The application was submitted after discussions with education officials.  The application was withdrawn following further discussions.  The state Department of […]

“Issue school-by-school performance report cards to parents and the public. Use the results of this report card to hold schools accountable–rewards for those performing on an exceptional basis and sanctions for low performing schools.”  1998 Policy Foundation recommendation (February 2011) The status of Arkansas’ first formal government report to issue grades to districts based on performance is […]