Poverty guidelines play two important roles, they are a scorecard for how we are doing as a state, and they help determine eligibility for dozens of programs that low-income Arkansans rely on. Because the current guidelines are outdated, they...
Arkansas made gains in health coverage and education over the last year, but the child poverty rate went up to 29 percent. Those ups and downs are consistent with national trends, according to the 25th edition KIDS COUNT Data...
The Office of Education Policy (OEP) at the University of Arkansas shared a new report on school discipline with the State Board of Education this morning. The report’s findings are similar to those found by AACF last year. Almost...
They’ve done it again. The legislature provided funding for prisons in this special session. About $6.3 million was funded this time to open 600 prison beds. That’s about $10,500 a bed-far more than we pay per student for K-12...
June closed out this fiscal year with net general revenues of $539 million for the month (-1.4 percent less than last year) according to this morning’s report from the Department of Finance and Administration. The year as a whole...
A new report shows the Private Option is having a positive impact in Arkansas. The report, which was released by the White House, shows that Arkansas, and other states that extended coverage to low-income citizens, has created jobs and...
Too many children enter foster care for a very short period of time. Removal from the home and placement in foster care can be a traumatic experience for a child, and the state is looking at ways to serve...
Today is Juneteenth, a day to celebrate the promise of freedom to black children and families throughout the United States. Though the freedom we celebrate today was provided by the Emancipation Proclamation more than 150 years ago, we still...
The teenager at your local burger joint is probably making minimum wage, but he or she isn’t a typical minimum wage worker. If Arkansas passes the ballot initiative to increase the minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, most of...
The federal Child Tax Credit (CTC) helps many low-income and middle-income working parents make sure that their kids grow up strong, but key improvements to the CTC are set to expire in 2017. The CTC prevented 1.6 million kids...