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“School Improvement Coordinator Ms. Tiah Frazier said there were 28 districts with transitional support plans.” Minutes, State Board of Education, December 14, 2017 “PA930 of 2017 requires districts with schools labeled under the state’s previous school accountability system to work with the Arkansas Department of Education to develop “transitional support plans” that will move the districts and […]

“Scarce resources can be allocated toward fiscal goals … when government does more with less.”  Policy Foundation, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 20161   (February 12, 2018) Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson proposed using efficiencies and savings from the transformation of state government to reduce the top state individual income tax rate from 6.9 to 6.0 percent in 2019.   […]

“State corporate income taxes represent a type of “double taxation”, wherein corporate profits are taxed at both the corporate level and the personal income tax level, when dividends are paid.” Murphy Commission, Policy Foundation project, 19981   (February 2018) Arkansas is among states with the second highest top corporate income tax rate in the 12-state […]

(January 2018) Records show the school choice market in Pulaski County totaled nearly 19,000 K-12 students in 2017. This niche educational market includes students eligible to participate in public school choice programs, capped at three percent (3%) of enrollment; and homeschooled, private and charter students.   The Arkansas School Choice Market   School choice has […]

“The most callused aspect of the current education monopoly in Arkansas is that it willingly and deliberately forces children–except those whose parents have wealth–to attend bad schools.” Policy Foundation report,11998   (January 2018) Records show the Arkansas school choice market continues to grow at a high rate, expanding from an estimated 66,627 K-12 students (2013)2 to […]

“There is significant evidence that reductions in marginal state tax rates encourage state economic growth …Rates on productive behavior should be reduced.” “Reduce the state’s income tax…repeal the state’s capital gains tax.” Arkansas Policy Foundation, Murphy Commission project, 1998 (December 2017) Nine years into a national economic expansion Arkansas’ economy trails the national average in jobs […]

“(A) stronger FOIA has the potential to save Arkansas taxpayers millions of dollars … Records we obtained … show outstanding tax liens …. while taxes are raised and counties aren’t fully reimbursed for housing state inmates in county jails.” Watchdog.org,1 March 20, 2015   (December 2017) One year after the Efficiency Project recommended reducing more than $300 million in […]

(December 2017) Arkansas’ top income tax rate (6.9%)1 is the second-highest in the 12-state southeast region,2 trailing only South Carolina (7.0%), according to the Federation of State Tax Administrators.3  The organization serves the principal tax collection agencies of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Philadelphia, and New York.4   South Carolina 7.0% Arkansas 6.9% West Virginia 6.5% Georgia […]

  (October 2017) The Arkansas Policy Foundation and Reason Foundation cordially invite you to a panel and workshop event, titled “Arkansas School Choice and School Finance in the 21st Century”   The event includes a panel discussion on “National Trends in School Choice and Implications for Arkansas” with Rep. Jim Dotson and Arkansas Parent Network’s […]

“Define and implement a system of performance-based pay for all state employees.” Murphy Commission, “Making Arkansas’ State Government Performance Driven and Accountable,” September 19981   (September 2017) The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT) has advanced a performance-based pay program, a reform first recommended in 1998 by the Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project.   The performance-based […]