Policy Research

(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...

(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:  ...

(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...

“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...

(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...

“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...

                    (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...

(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...

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...

“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...