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 […]

The year 2015 was a milestone year of political change in Arkansas. Because of term limits and the changing political landscape at the state capitol, we lost many of our long-time champions of children’s issues on both sides of the political aisle. At the same time, tax cuts that leave out the poor and reducing government spending have […]

In 2013, one out of four Arkansans did not have health insurance. Arkansas faced a looming Medicaid budget shortfall, all while more than 500,000 Arkansans were without health coverage. That year, Arkansas made history by passing bipartisan legislation called the Health Care Independence Act, creating the Private Option. It’s an innovative model for expanding coverage that uses Medicaid […]

A lack of paid family leave programs in Arkansas leaves many families, particularly low-income families, in poor physical and financial health. Achieving statewide paid family leave is a great change, but a significant one. A few baby steps toward that ultimate goal could help inform a comprehensive policy that is tailored to Arkansas’s specific needs, and calm the fears that some […]

Paid leave allows employees to take time off to care for a new baby or a relative with a serious illness, without losing all of their income. Paid leave helps families stay financially and physically healthy. From an economic standpoint, offering paid leave can benefit employers, too. It can help employers save on hiring and training […]

Open enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace ends on January 31. The end of open enrollment provides an opportunity for lawmakers and health stakeholders to celebrate the success Arkansas has had in covering the uninsured, but it also provides time to eliminate the challenges consumers still face when enrolling in affordable health coverage. The enrollment […]