Week in Review

State Capitol Week in Review

LITTLE ROCK – Economic development policy in Arkansas combines several strategies.

Tax incentives are important. The state offers grants and low-interest financing. It helps pay for job training and helps Arkansas companies tap markets in foreign countries. The state helps industries by building infrastructure such as roads, railroad spurs, utility lines and water and drainage projects.

In the past few years, as the nation has lost jobs in manufacturing and gained jobs in information technology, Arkansas officials have been putting more emphasis on education as an economic development tool. Modern industries need well-educated workers who understand computers and can adapt to changing technologies.

Two state agencies have combined efforts to better meet the needs of business. The Economic Development Commission and the Department of Workforce Education, at the instigation of the governor's office, have created a new program call "The "Modern Workplace."

The program puts teachers in businesses for a few days so they can better appreciate the demands on employees and the skills necessary to meet those demands.

The first aspect of the program will put teachers in a simulated work place, to provide them a first hand look at what students face after graduation. Next, teachers in the program tour businesses. In the final stage, teachers bring business and industry professionals to their classrooms for direct interaction with students.

The Workforce Education Department provides adult education and GED classes.

About 500,000 adult Arkansans do not have a high school diploma or the equivalent, a GED. The Workforce Education Department has a division that focuses on adult education, and part of its strategy for reaching more adults is to increase the number of classes offered at work sites.

The division wants to increase its annual enrollment from about 50,000 now to more than 67,000 by 2011. Some of those adult education students only need a few days or weeks of instruction to be able to pass their GED tests. About 17 percent have skill levels below those of sixth graders and of course they need more extensive classes.

Another 17 percent need to learn English as their second language. This category of students has been growing steadily over the past decade. Six percent needed basic literacy classes because they could not read or write.

About 7,000 Arkansans earned a GED last year and more than 1,600 of them enrolled in post-secondary classes in a community or technical college or a university.

Welfare Reform

Since 2002 the number of welfare cases in Arkansas has decreased from about 20,000 to about 14,000, in part because the state requires welfare recipients to look for work and take adult education classes. Also, Arkansas limits cash assistance for individuals to two years during their lifetimes unless there are extreme circumstances.

The 14,000 welfare cases in Arkansas represent more than 24,000 children and about 9,700 adults.

Last year about 9,200 welfare cases were closed for various reasons. Some were closed because the recipients did not look for work or they reached their life time limits. In some cases the eligible children left home. More than 5,100 got jobs.