From our latest publication, The Business Case for Pre-K: The importance of pre-K rises as the number of children living in poverty goes up. In Arkansas that is 29 percent of our children. Nationally it’s 23 percent. Pre-K enables...
AACF is excited to announce that Kathryn Hazelett will join our staff as our new education policy director. Kathryn has a history of working toward positive policy changes that benefit Arkansas’s children and families. She is passionate about education and it...
Arkansas is slipping when it comes to pre-K education. Every year, the Annie E. Casey Foundation releases the Kids Count Data Book, featuring new numbers on the well-being of children in Arkansas. Over the past year, we’ve seen a...
The 2015 KIDS COUNT® Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation points out that more than 200,000 children are living in poverty in Arkansas. That’s almost 30 percent – close to one third – of all children in...
This legislative session was filled with missed opportunities. Lawmakers passed bills that weren’t good for families of color. As Arkansas becomes a more diverse state, it is important for Arkansas’s economic and social future that all people have a...
Thanks to everyone who is speaking up for pre-K programs in Arkansas. Today we are releasing the first of a series of videos of folks sharing their thoughts on pre-K. It’s not just the providers and AACF that know...
Hey Arkansas! Summer Learning Day is on June 19, and in celebration, the Arkansas Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is offering YOU a chance to win a $100 Walmart gift card! How? Show us how you keep your kids reading...
Imagine living in a state where every child enrolled in an early education center or a preschool classroom and received the highest quality of education. Imagine that every child left well prepared for not just kindergarten, but the rest...
Arkansas’s state funded pre-K program is falling behind other states who are increasing spending on pre-K. The Arkansas Better Chance program, or ABC, still ranks high in many categories in an update of an annual review of state pre-K...
Dr. Joan Lombardi is the Director of Early Opportunities, LLC and currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Buffett Early Childhood Fund and the Bernard van Leer Foundation. Over the past 40 years, Dr. Lombardi has made significant contributions...