Blog

(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 […]

Summary: Two reports on student performance underscore the problem: the state Department of Education has failed to acknowledge there is a problem. (January 2012) A new student performance report by the Univ. of Arkansas-Fayetteville’s Office for Education Policy (OEP), following surveys from the state Department of Education (2011) and the Policy Foundation (2005-2008) underscore a […]

(December 2011) Arkansas policymakers, pressed by fiscal conservatives have rejected an expansion of nationalized medical insurance by disbanding seven advisory groups seeking to establish a state-operated health exchange.   State officials tried to launch the exchange with a $1 million federal grant but fiscal conservatives objected to additional funding, noting the U.S. Supreme Court has […]

“The following provision for Arkansas school districts is recommended: a prohibition on the use of all taxes collected and secured by the pledge of an ad valorem tax levy to debt service for other than reducing bond principal and interest.”  Policy Foundation, 1998 report   (December 2011) Outstanding loans and bonded indebtedness of Arkansas K-12 public […]