Featured Articles

Public Option Failure Means Medical Care Issue Shifts To State Level

(January 21, 2010)
The public (government) option that served as the basis for various congressional proposals failed for several reasons including grass-roots opposition from taxpayers sympathetic to the Tea Party movement. The group raises the legitimate concern that increased federal medical spending will add to record budget deficits and further deterioration in the U.S. fiscal position.

Read More

Mission Statement

The Arkansas Policy Foundation is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that analyzes the impact of public policy on Arkansas and makes recommendations.

The Foundation emphasizes the importance of tax policy and education reform.

Principles of tax policy: Arkansas would benefit from comprehensive, pro-growth reform; Arkansans are not under-taxed; taxes and rates do matter to entrepreneurs; dynamic scoring of tax changes and effects provides benefits.

Education reform: The Foundation seeks intellectual honesty and complete openness in reporting the lack of academic progress in Arkansas' school system.

The Foundation encourages citizenship.

Recent Articles

Study: 'Cap-And-Trade' Will Lead To 17,100 To 23,300 Fewer Jobs In Arkansas

(December 2009)
Arkansas will see a reduction in job growth, with 17,100 to 23,300 fewer jobs in 2030 under a 'Cap-and-Trade' proposal, according to a new study by the Arkansas Policy Foundation and the American Council for Capital Formation.

Read More
View Study (PDF) | View Study (DOC)

Tax Cut, Commodity Prices, Agriculture Boost Arkansas Income To 46th In U.S.

(November 2009)
Federal data shows Arkansas ranked 46th in per capita personal income (2008), exceeding four states for the first time since the U.S. government initiated the time series. The largest tax cut in Arkansas history, commodity prices and farm receipts all contributed to growth in income.

Read More

Policymakers Weighing Tax Changes Would Benefit From Dynamic Analysis

(October 12, 2009)
State revenues from a 2008 severance tax hike are short of the official estimate due to deflation in the natural gas market. But a 30 percent cut in the state capital gains tax in 1999 led to revenues greater than the estimate due to increased economic activity..

Read More

Dynamic Analysis of State Severance Tax Hike

(September 14, 2009)
State revenues from a 2008 severance tax hike are $16.5 million less than the Department of Finance and Administration estimate if based on a natural gas price of $6.21 per cubic foot, not the $8.00 state estimate, according to a dynamic analysis of the tax increase.

Read More

4th Annual Arkansas School Districts Report

(August 2009)
The Arkansas Policy Foundation (APF) has provided letter-grade rankings of Arkansas school districts, beginning with the spring 2005 administration of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). For the 2007-2008 school year, the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) began using the Stanford Achievement Test – 10th Edition (SAT-10). Both the ITBS and SAT-10 are norm-referenced tests that report scores in several formats. These include scaled scores, percentile ranks, and normal curve equivalent scores. Of these, percentile ranks are the easiest to interpret, and they have been the choice for publication by ADE.

View the 4th annual Arkansas School Districts report:

Word (DOC) Format | Adobe PDF Format

Arkansas 2007-2008 School District Rankings

(August 2009)
Seventeen K-12 public school districts in Arkansas earned the top grade (A or A-minus) in the Policy Foundation's fourth annual School District Rankings study. Nine districts received a failing grade of F in the report, which relies on the SAT-10 to issue a letter grade to every Arkansas district.

Read More

Arkansas school districts receiving A, B, C, D and F grades in the Policy Foundation's fourth annual School District Rankings are identified in the following chart.

Read More

View the 4th annual Arkansas School Districts report:

Word (DOC) Format | Adobe PDF Format

Alabama Study: Taxpayer Funding & Student Outcomes

(August 2009)
A 2008 study by the Alabama Policy Institute found that taxpayer funding has little bearing on the outcomes of students. The study found a tenuous link between education inputs and outputs.

Read More

New Charter Schools Planned In Failing Arkansas School Districts

(July 2009)
New charter schools are planned in two troubled Arkansas school districts identified by the Policy Foundation. The districts are Blytheville, which earned an 'F' (failing) grade in the Foundation's 2007 Arkansas School District Rankings report; and West Memphis, which received a D-minus grade in the survey.

Read More

Community Corrections Needs Independent Performance Review

(July 2009)
The state Department of Community Corrections includes performance measures in its "Agency Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2007-2011."

Read More

When Will The Recession End?

(June 2009)
U.S. payroll employment or industrial production growth for one quarter will suggest the recession is ending.

Read More

Physician: Prevention, Team Approach Key To Medical Care Access In Rural Arkansas

(June 2009)
Dr. Thomas A. Bruce, former dean of the College of Medicine at the Univ. of Arkansas told a Policy Foundation forum today that prevention and "a team approach" are key to improving medical care access in rural Arkansas.

Read More

People Have To Eat

Market-based economists have opposed the taxation of food for more than 200 years. The Policy Foundation has published 10 research memos since 2002 on repeal of the Arkansas grocery tax.

Free Market Economists and the Sales Tax on Food

Free market economists opposed the taxation of food nearly two centuries before modern liberals discovered the regressive nature of the sales tax in the 20th Century.

Failing District In Foundation Survey Among Four Arkansas Districts That Face Restructuring

(May 2009)
The Turrell School District was named a failing district in a 2008 Policy Foundation survey of Arkansas school districts, and faces restructuring next year, according to education officials.

Read More

Ex-St. Louis Fed Chief Criticizes Bank Bailouts, Sees Long-Term Inflation

(May 2009)
Ex-St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President William Poole criticized federal bank bailouts and forecast long-term inflation during three April 16 forums in Conway co-sponsored by Hendrix College and the Policy Foundation.

Read More

Arkansas Government Misses Rolling Deflation

(March 2009)
The Consumer Price Index, an inflation measure, was zero in 2008, the lowest reading since 1955 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis). Declining asset classes have left unprepared Americans exposed to the economic phenomenon of deflation. "Thinking about deflation," the Policy Foundation warned in a 2001 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette column, "could lead many to carefully examine their own balance sheets and assumptions about credit and the economy."

Read More

Policy Foundation To Participate In March 26 Federal Reserve Forum On Deficits & Debt

(March 2009)
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is sponsoring a Little Rock forum Thursday, March 26 on the topic, "Deficits, Debt and Looming Disaster". The event will take place at the Peabody Hotel from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Representatives of non-profit groups including AARP and the Policy Foundation will participate in the forum.

Read More

State Retirement System Losses Prompt Merger Call

(March 2009)
Investment losses by the Arkansas State Police Retirement System have led a state Senator to suggest merging the system, a proposal first made by the Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project in 1998.

Read More

Arkansas Governors and the Murphy Commission

(February 2009)
The Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project, spent three years (1996-98) reviewing Arkansas state government. More than 100 citizen volunteers served with the Commission, which issued a series of policy recommendations. Arkansas governors, past and present, also played roles in the Commission's attempt to reform state government.

Executive Order Proclamation


Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee's Inaugural Comments Announcing the Murphy Commission (July 16, 1996)

Democratic State Sen. Mike Beebe's Performance-Based Budgeting Pilot Program (1999). Mr. Beebe is the current Arkansas governor.

Blue Print For Hard Times

(January 2009)
The economy has entered the second year of a recession that started in December 2007. Families, individuals and private enterprises across Arkansas are making tough choices in hard economic times by restructuring to make ends meet. One exception is state government, which continues to raise taxes and spending levels, expand programs and restrict per capita income, ranked second or third worst in the U.S. for most of the postwar era.

Read More

Looking For Archived Policy Research?
Visit www.reformarkansas.org