Policy Research

(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...

“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...

“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...

(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...

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...

(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...

(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....

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...

“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...

(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...