In a special session beginning later this week, Gov. Hutchinson and Arkansas lawmakers will make decisions on how to fund Arkansas’s highways, many of which are in dire need of repairs. Gov. Hutchinson’s proposal for highway funding works in the short term but creates major budget issues over the long term. In the first year, […]

This November, elections are critical to the well-being of Arkansas’s children and families and to the future of this great state. Arkansas voters will help decide which candidates win a number of important public offices, including the U.S. Presidency, a U.S. Senate seat, and House and Senate seats in the Arkansas General Assembly. The winners […]

Nearly half of Arkansas single moms live in poverty. The best way to make sure that moms and their kids have bright financial futures is to start making smart policy decisions. This Mother’s Day, let’s give moms a gift that will last, like health insurance, maternity leave, after-school and summer programs, quality pre-K and tax […]

For the first time in our country’s history, 95 percent of children have the health care coverage they need to be healthy and thrive, according to a new report by the Urban Institute and funded by the Packard Foundation. As impressive, 97 percent of children ages 0 to 5 have access to health coverage, which […]

This May the Fourth, awaken the force … of QUALITY PRE-K. Our little Wookiees’ earliest experiences form the foundation for all of their future learning. In quality pre-K classrooms, they learn to regulate emotions along with their ABC’s, leading them to success in Kindergarten and beyond. From Kindergarten readiness to coding careers to space travel, […]

Quality pre-K matters. It matters most to the children who start off with their backpacks full of knowledge — they are familiar with school routines, they understand the importance of using words rather than fists when there is conflict over crayons, and they are beginning to recognize numbers and sound out words. They are Kindergarten-ready. Quality pre-K also matters to […]

More than 5 million children in the United States (7 percent of the total child population) have had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives, including an estimated 61,000 in Arkansas, announced Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation today. In its latest KIDS COUNT® policy report, […]

Tax day would certainly be a little happier for hundreds of thousands of working Arkansans if we had an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). President Reagan called EITCs “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.” An Arkansas EITC would supplement the wildly successful federal version which helps working families across […]

What if Arkansas were a national leader in children’s education and health? What if we had one of the lowest rates of child poverty in the nation instead of one of the highest? What if our abused and neglected children received the attention they deserved from caseworkers who weren’t overloaded? It’s not impossible. We can […]

Next week, during a special session on Medicaid, Arkansas lawmakers will vote on Governor Asa Hutchinson’s version of expanded health care, Arkansas Works. Much like the Private Option has, Arkansas Works will ensure continued access to coverage for hundreds of thousands of hard-working Arkansans. However, Arkansas Works also includes changes that tend to appeal to […]