Purpose: Teacher pay in Arkansas public schools varies widely from district to district across the state. This pay discrepancy is driven by both the funds available to a district and by how these funds are allocated. A standard per student budget is given to districts across the state, but this budget can be supplemented by additional property…

This Annual Statistical Report of the Public Schools of Arkansas, Open Enrollment Public Charter Schools, and Education Service Cooperatives, 2023-2024 Actual and 2024-2025 Budgeted (ASR) is submitted in compliance with the provisions of A.C.A. § 6-20-2201 et seq. The information contained in the report was obtained from the Annual Financial…

The public schools of Arkansas, open enrollment public charter schools, and education service cooperatives annual statistical report (ASR), 2021-2022 actual and 2022-2023 budgeted, is presented here. The rankings of selected items of the public schools, 2021-2022 actual, are also included. The school districts are listed according to Local…

The public schools of Arkansas, open enrollment public charter schools, and education service cooperatives annual statistical report (ASR), 2020-2021 actual and 2021-2022 budgeted, is presented here. The rankings of selected items of the public schools, 2020-2021 actual, are also included. The school districts are listed according to Local…

Alternative approaches to raising funds for public schools have long been critiqued for their approach to providing an equitable and adequate distribution of educational goods. Inherent in these core concepts of fairness are ethical questions that drive how policy and practice evolve to generate revenue for the education of children. This paper…

Opponents of educational choice recycle the same false prophesies of doom without regard to the evidence or the size and scope of the proposals. Part I of this report assesses the validity of choice opponents' predictions that choice policies will lead to significant losses of district school funding and declining academic performance. Part II of…

The public schools of Arkansas, open enrollment public charter schools, and education service cooperatives annual statistical report (ASR) presents the 2019-2020 actual and 2020-2021 budgeted rankings as well as the rankings of selected items of the public schools of Arkansas, 2019-2020 actual rankings. The school districts are listed according to…

There were a number of historic public charter school policy wins across the country in 2017. Kentucky became the 44th state (along with the District of Columbia) to enact a charter school law. Colorado and Florida provided charter school students with unprecedented access to locally raised dollars for facilities. Tennessee and Texas created new…

Despite the myriad of challenges that families, students, teachers and policymakers faced in 2021, the momentum to transform education did not waver. New opportunities for students unfolded in more than a dozen states through expanded private and public school choice. An additional 1.7 million students gained eligibility for private choice alone,…

In February 2015 a large group of scholars, researchers, and practitioners interested in P-20 finance issues gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for the National Education Finance Academy's annual conference, on February 25-27, 2015 to discuss, among multiple topics, the state of P-20 finance in all 50 states. There were 35 states represented in the…

Public education funding relies on revenues from a variety of sources, from local taxpayers to federal programs targeting students with specific needs. The vast sum of funding collected--in excess of $600 billion annually--often masks which entities fund the education of our nation's youth. Questions of funding adequacy and equity across school…

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor reported a record-high 6.2 million job openings. Yet many employers report they cannot find the well-prepared candidates they need in the South and across the country. The problem is students' lack of preparation for college and career training. Also in 2017, the ACT college admissions test examined the…

Historically, state departments of education, or SEAs, have--for the most part--been compliance-focused organizations that managed federal education policy. Over the past several decades, these agencies have been education policy implementation entities. Today, while their compliance responsibilities have remained, they are taking on more…

In every state in the South, the percentage of residents with bachelor's degrees or higher who were born outside the state exceed the percentage born in-state, reflecting their dependence on imported talent over building their own talent-development systems. In Virginia, the Southern state with the highest percentage of residents with a B.A. or…

In compliance with the provisions of A.C.A.§§6-20-2201 et seq., the Annual Statistical Report of the Public Schools of Arkansas, Public Charter Schools, and Education Service Cooperatives, 2013-2014 Actual and 2014-2015 Budgeted, (ASR) is presented here. The Rankings of Selected Items of the Public Schools of Arkansas, 2013-2014 Actual, (Rankings)…