NCHEMS Report on Improving Higher Education in Arkansas

According to a report released by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), Arkansas should set high impact goals in order to improve higher education outcomes. Supported in part by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the report describes specific actions that the state should consider if Arkansas is to increase its college graduation rate ranking from 49th nationally.

The Single Parent Scholarship Fund

The Single Parent Scholarship Fund helps break the poverty cycle. Capturing the post-graduation experience of more than 50 recipients of ASPSF financial aid, mentoring, and other support, this study indicates that education is the key to defeating poverty in Arkansas.

Water Issues in Arkansas: An Unfinished Story

Water is one of Arkansas’s most important but little understood economic and natural resources. Discover several tools and policy options that can help Arkansas avert crisis and manage the use of Arkansas’s water. Click here to view the summary report or to view the full report.

Entrepreneurial Arkansas: Connecting the Dots

The Connecting the Dots study focuses on entrepreneurship as a viable component of an economic development strategy for Arkansas. This study provided the foundation for much of WRF’s work in economic development over the last decade.

Volume 1 defines the creative economy and estimates the economic impact of the 26,858 Arkansans working in arts and other creative industries on the state’s economy.

Volume 2 highlights the varied contributions Arkansas individuals, organizations, and institutions are making to the state’s creative economy and focuses on the stories that make the state a vibrant place to do business.

Volume 3 makes the case for investing more in Arkansas’s creative economy as a strategy for economic development and assesses both the challenges and opportunities for further growth.

Volume 4 summarizes the most important indings of the first three volumes and provides recommendations on how Arkansas’s creative economy can be enhanced.

National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics

The National Task Force on Early Education for Hispanics urges that Hispanic children be enrolled in high-quality education programs as early as possible in order to make more rapid progress in closing the Hispanic–White achievement gap.

A Profile of Immigrants in Arkansas

This widely cited summary report and two companion volumes discuss key demographic trends, economic factors, and public-policy issues associated with immigrants in Arkansas. The first volume, Immigrant Workers, Families, and Their Children, provides a demographic overview of the state’s foreign-born population, explores the composition of the immigrant labor force, and describes trends in the state’s population of children in immigrant families. The second volume, Impacts on the Arkansas Economy, describes immigrants’ purchasing power, tax contributions, fiscal costs, and indirect economic impacts through spin-off jobs.

Executive Summary
Volume 1: Immigrant Workers, Families, and Their Children
Volume 2: Impacts on the Arkansas Economy

Tax Options for Arkansas: Funding Education After the Lake View Case 

Summary Report

Complete Report

An executive summary of the Tax Options report reviews Arkansas’s tax system and analyzes an array of funding options that could satisfy the Lake View mandate.

The Arkansas Supreme Court’s 2002 Lake View decision is based on findings of constitutional deficiencies in the state’s education system. The complete report is intended to inform policymakers and the public about the potential advantages and drawbacks of various revenue-raising strategies, as well as the differential impact of these strategies on taxpayers at all income levels.

Building A Better Arkansas Tax System: Evaluating The Options

The shift of more governmental responsibility from the federal level to the states means that Arkansas’s elected representatives are faced with complex issues regarding state and local services and the taxes that pay for them. This report provides policymakers with a framework for making critical decisions about tax policy.

Miles to Go Arkansas — Pre-Kindergarten: The Key to a Better Future For All

Arkansas’s economy can grow by an extra $15 billion by 2035 if high-quality pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) becomes available to all three- and four-year-olds among the state’s low-income and working families, according to a report released by the Southern Education Foundation. This landmark study was among the factors that led to the current excellent funding of Pre-K in Arkansas.  Entitled Miles to Go: Arkansas — Pre-Kindergarten: The Key to a Better Future For All, the report recommended that the Arkansas legislature provide an additional $20 million annual appropriation for the growth of Pre-K in 2006–2007 and continue to make state appropriations for each year afterward until the state has established a universal Pre-K system that is supported by regular state revenues.