We are less than a week away from the convening of the 2012 General Assembly. Lawmakers return to Little Rock this month for the “fiscal session” in which they are to consider budget bills to fund state government through...
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...
The National Center for Youth Law and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency recently released Arkansas Youth Justice: The Architecture of Reform. The report details efforts to transform the juvenile justice system in Arkansas. The gist? Efforts by government officials,...
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...
AACF releases study showing that more Arkansas kids are being covered by health insurance, yet many challenges remain. The number of uninsured children dropped in Arkansas even as families continued to feel the effects of the recent recession. Our...
It’s no surprise that recession has hurt Arkansas families, especially children. The state’s child poverty rate continues to increase and is now well over 27 percent. But new data on uninsured children provide some good news for Arkansas children...
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...
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...
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...
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...