Policy Research

(October 1, 2011) Most Arkansas charters1 meet or exceed standards in a state report that assigns a numerical grade to K-12 public schools but four are named as “approaching the standards alert” set by PA 35...

  (October 1, 2011) The Little Rock School District, the state’s largest, has half of the failing schools in the first state education report required by a 2003 law that requires a numerical grade for...

“Nonfarm payroll employment was unchanged (0) in August, and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent.”  (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)   (September 2, 2011) Today’s monthly BLS report noting zero employment growth last month provides...

(September 2011) The municipal government claimed its plan would expand broadband, a telecommunications process providing greater bandwidth.  The idea was to provide universal coverage to all residents.    Ten years later, residents in the city of...

(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...