I turn 17 in a few days and while I have a family that loves me and says they will pay for my college and I can stay with them while I go to school, I have no desire for that. I’m living in central Arkansas and I wouldn’t mind staying in the area but i also wouldn’t mind getting away a few miles to where I won’t run into them. I really just need a small place to live either that a freshly 18 year old can put a reasonable down payment on and finance or rent a place for amount that is livable. Any areas that fit that description. (I’m currently in Conway)

Remote Area Medical will be making its way out to Arkansas this October and volunteers are needed! We especially need dental professionals: dentists, oral surgeons, dental assistants, dental hygienists, and denture technicians!

Learn more about how to get involved using the link below!

Volunteer with RAM!

Hi all! I am wanting to take my 20 year old daughter for a Friday through Sunday mini bonding vacation. We are looking to go in the next couple weeks. We are up for about anything and looking for suggestions on where to go. We only want to drive the most of 4 hours from Little Rock. So do a mom a favor and drop your favorite staycation places! Thanks 😊!

Hi! My sister and I are planning a weekend girls trip with our daughters (ages 23, 16, and 13) in August for a quick weekend getaway and we were thinking about staying at the Crescent Hotel and doing a ghost tour. We know that Arkansas is beautiful outdoors, so we are seeking other options and possibly doing the ghost tour on the side. What are some places in Arkansas that you recommend staying/visiting? I’m thinking hot springs or caves as another option! We don’t have to do the ghost tour, it was just the first thing brought up. TIA for any recommendations!

I sat on a private school board in Little Rock from 2012 to 2016. This was before vouchers were on the table in Arkansas, but we could see them coming, and we had to decide in advance whether we'd take the money. I voted no, and I wasn't alone. Here's the thinking:

1. Public money comes with public strings, and it should. Our policies exist because of who we are as an institution. A private school is free to be built on principles that differ from the public system; that freedom is the entire point of being private. But the moment you take taxpayer dollars, you invite taxpayer oversight, and rightly so; it's the public's money. You can't cash the check and still expect full control over the culture the check was meant to fund. For a school built on distinct principles, the honest move is to not take it in the first place.

2. It doesn't lower tuition; eventually, it raises it. Private schools price the way hospitals and colleges do: not at what the service costs, but at what the payor can bear. Hospitals lean on insurance, colleges lean on loans and grants, and once vouchers exist, a school has a new payor to price against. It's only a matter of time before the state sets aside special funds for disadvantaged students, and those funds arrive with more rules attached. The families already sacrificing to be here end up absorbing both the cost and the regulation.

3. Our results come from demanding parent involvement, and money can't buy that. Tuition is the smallest thing we ask for. We expect parents to show up, and when a child is failing and the parents won't engage, enrollment is on the line, and we've held that line. That standard is a big reason our outcomes hold up. Vouchers change who's paying; they don't change what actually makes a school work. My worry is that they let people believe otherwise.

I'm not against school choice as an idea. I'm telling you what taking the money actually does to a school, from the inside.