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(August 2008) Eighteen K-12 public school districts in Arkansas earned the top grade (A or A-minus) in the Policy Foundation’s third annual School District Rankings study. Fourteen districts received a failing grade of F in the report, which relies on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) to issue a letter grade to every Arkansas […]

  “Define and implement a system of performance-based pay for all Arkansas state employees and public K-12 employees, including teachers.” (Murphy Commission, 1998 stud, “Making Arkansas State Government Performance Driver And Accountable”) (July 2008) Teachers in two Arkansas school districts—Cross County and Lincoln—will participate in merit pay programs in the upcoming 2008-09 school year. The […]

  “In its amicus brief filed with the state Supreme Court in the Lake View case, the Arkansas Policy Foundation points out that, in 1996, the Clinton administration recommended a similar accounting system for the country’s public schools.” Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, Feb. 10, 2002 Arkansas has made significant progress toward academic and fiscal transparency since […]

(June 2008) The National Education Association (NEA), the largest government-sector labor union in the United States, lost members in Arkansas in 2007, records show. There were 16,528 Arkansas NEA members as of Dec. 31, 2007 according to a document posted by the union. The number represents a decline of 221 members, or 1.32 percent. The […]

(June 2008) A long-stated goal of Arkansas state government officials is achieving 100 percent parity with the U.S. average in terms of per capita personal income (Bureau of Economic Analysis). Government economic development officials have led this quest, which at times as appeared similar to the search for the Holy Grail. That is to say, […]

One educational group escaped scrutiny in the consolidation debate that occurred after the Court’s decision in Lake View: Arkansas’ education service co¬operatives. Much of the debate about K-12 consolidation revolved around the student enrollment threshold to be used as criteria for closing districts. Gov. Huckabee proposed a 1,500 threshold and some legislators suggested a lower […]

Arkansas has the highest income tax rate among the states that border it, according to 2008 data compiled by the Federation of Tax Administrators. The group has published a chart that shows Arkansas has a top rate of 7 percent. The chart can be viewed at: http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/ind_inc.html The following chart lists area states and their top […]

(April 2008) Economists from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, the Univ. of Arkansas and the Policy Foundation participated in a recent forum on the Arkansas economy that aired statewide on public television (AETN). The monthly show, ‘Unconventional Wisdom,’ is hosted by Stephens News Bureau columnist David Sanders, and can be viewed at: http://www.aetn.org/production/podcast/unconventional_media/march_28,_2008 Michael Pakko […]

  “In order for Arkansas to move from a low-wage to a high-wage economy, the state needs to decrease marginal tax rates …in order to attract (high-income) workers to Arkansas.” (“Taxes And Savings in Arkansas.” Murphy Commission, 1998) (April 2008) Arkansas employment growth trailed the U.S. in 2007, the fourth consecutive year that job creation in […]

“The state’s income tax should be reduced … Consider an across-the-board cut, reduce the marginal rates, exempt taxpayers below a certain income level from filing, and expedite the process of indexing for inflation (Improving Productivity by Reducing Taxes and Taxes and Savings in Arkansas, Murphy Commission, 1998) Summary: Individual income tax brackets, in response to […]