The Corporation for Enterprise Development released their Assets and Opportunities Scorecard recently, and the news is not great for Arkansas. On balance the state ranks 44 out of 51 (all U.S. states and the District of Columbia), but the report highlights some areas where Arkansas performs at or above the national average.  The Scorecard is a comprehensive look at Americans' financial security and their opportunities for the future. The Scorecard evaluates states on 101 outcomes and policy measures in the areas of financial assets and income, businesses and jobs, housing and homeownership, health care and education. For more information on the Scorecard, visit http://scorecard.cfed.org.

We may have mild temperatures right now but February should bring colder weather and thoughts of your favorite soups.  Plans are underway for our 2012 Soup Sundays, and both lineups are looking quite appetizing.  The Little Rock event will be held at the Embassy Suites on Financial Center Parkway on February 19^th from 4:00pm - 7:00pm. The Northwest Arkansas event will be held at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale on February 26^th from 4:00pm - 7:00pm.

AACF releases study showing that more Arkansas kids are being covered by health insurance, yet many challenges remain.

Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families (AACF) is excited to announce it has hired a new communications director.  He is Gerard Matthews, formerly an associate editor with the Arkansas Times and director of development with Independent Living Services in Conway.  Gerard has a Master's Degree in media and public affairs from George Washington University and a Bachelor's degree in political science from UCA.

The Foundation for Child Development (FCD) has released a state-by-state Child and Youth Well-Being Index (CWI). While evaluating the different factors that impact child well-being at the state level, FCD found that higher taxes mean more revenue for vital programs in education and health which lead to better outcomes for children. They also found that public investments for children do have a large impact on child well-being and that a child's well-being is strongly related to the state where a child lives.

The Economic Mobility Project, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts, recently released a report on the impact of a family's structure on a child's absolute and relative economic mobility. Family structure is believed to be an important factor in a child's economic future because this structure typically indicates the amount of human capital investments-the time and money that parents spend on or with their children. The greater the investment, the higher the likelihood the child will succeed in the labor market as an adult.

The monthly State General Revenue Report for December was released today by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. The report showed that December's revenue was above last year and the current forecast. (Year-to-date revenue collections were up as well.)

Leveling the playing field for small Arkansas businesses was examined this week during a joint meeting of the state Senate and House committees on revenue and taxation. The Arkansas Small Business Tax Fairness Act, sponsored by Rep. Jim Nickels, would close loopholes in the tax code that allow large, multi-state corporations that do business in Arkansas to shift profits from our state to another state to avoid paying income taxes on them. Currently, many large corporations use tax avoidance strategies such as creating subsidiaries in other states where business taxes are much lower or where there are no taxes at all.

Here's a sneak peak at an exciting trend we've just uncovered in recent insurance coverage data. Find out more about this when we release our annual report on child health insurance in early 2012.

We are very excited to announce that Anna Strong will be our next health policy director. Many of you already know Anna through her past volunteer and advocacy efforts here at AACF and with many of our partners around the state.