This edition of the Hoover Institution Briefing on Revitalizing American Institutions focuses on public employee pension plan sustainability, civics education, and a new podcast featuring incoming Hoover Institution senior fellow Eugene Volokh, in which he analyzes ongoing debates about free speech in America.
FEATURED ANALYSIS
RAI Hosts Public Pensions Conference
Hoover’s Center for Revitalizing American Institutions (RAI) brought together analysts, scholars, and public officials in March to discuss the looming challenge of public pension reform. Under the guidance of Hoover Institution visiting fellow Sarah F. Anzia, participants presented a mixed picture of the health of public pension plans in the United States. Analysts in attendance who had examined more than 200 major state and municipal pension funds revealed their findings that in 2023 the assets of these funds met only 78 percent of their liabilities. Combined, the pension liabilities of these various jurisdictions amounted to a total of $1.44 trillion in 2023, up from $1.35 trillion in 2009. As more and more money must be diverted to these plans from general operating revenues to keep them afloat, there is a risk that they “crowd out” other funding priorities, such as the operation of a school district or core public works.
Moving to a discussion about solutions for closing that gap, attendees heard from a representative of the Wisconsin state pension system, which pools 1,600 municipal and state entities’ pension contributions together under the authority of one unified plan.
This unified plan incorporates attributes of both defined-benefit and defined-contribution systems. Further, contributions are split evenly between employee and employer. Retirees are guaranteed a “floor” minimum payment, but total monthly payments can fluctuate depending on the overall performance of the fund.
Attendees discussed ways to reform public employee pension plans and how open the participants in those plans are to any changes that would make pension systems more sustainable.
Click here to read more.
Hoover’s Eugene Volokh Debuts Free Speech: Unmuted Podcast
In January, the Hoover Institution debuted Free Speech: Unmuted, a new podcast featuring incoming senior fellow and RAI affiliate Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer, professor of law and communications at the University of Florida. Together, they explore current issues surrounding the First Amendment. Initial episodes have dealt with school district book bans, the constitutionality of state laws prohibiting social media content moderation, whether the government can ask social media platforms to remove certain posts it deems harmful, and whether artificial intelligence companies can be held legally liable when their AI products generate false information. Audience members benefit from Volokh’s deep base of knowledge and widely cited legal scholarship in matters involving the First Amendment.
Click here to access episodes of Free Speech Unmuted
Hoover Scholars Join Civics Education Conference in Washington, DC
Hoover Institution scholars, including multiple RAI affiliates, joined experts, educators, and academics from across America in March to discuss the future of civics education in elementary, secondary, and university settings. Attendees were asked to identify trends in K–16 civics education, as well as concepts that are both under- and overrepresented. Attendees were prompted to explore how organizations such as the Hoover Institution, iCivics, and others could collaborate to strengthen and “de-polarize” civics education in US schools. They spoke of national initiatives to revamp civics education and how best to advance educating for responsible citizenship on university campuses.
Chester E. Finn, Jr., Argues for “Ceasefire” in US Civics Education
At The 74, RAI affiliate Checker Finn argues that much of the conflict over civics education in America is unnecessary and is “driven more by cultural combatants and politicians than by vast divides among parents and citizens regarding what schools should teach and children should learn.”
Finn cites poll data compiled in 2021 by the University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center that finds large majorities of K–12 parents support curriculum that teaches the contributions of historical figures that are women or minorities; the benefits and challenges of social programs such as Medicare or Social Security; and America’s leadership role in the world.
Interestingly, a separate poll conducted a year later by the Jack Miller Center found that 92 percent of its respondents supported teaching about “achievements of key historical figures even if their views do not align with modern values.”
Finn refers to civics curricula already in circulation that were developed in a bipartisan fashion by groups such as iCivics and the Civics Alliance of the National Association of Scholars. While he concedes there would still be division if a civics curriculum waded into topics such as gender or abortion, he argues that there is otherwise significant consensus, if activists on both sides were to simply pipe down and listen.
Fellow Spotlight: Eugene Volokh
Eugene Volokh is a visiting fellow and incoming senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. RAI colleagues are delighted that he will be leading efforts at the center to examine the role of free speech in promoting the health of US institutions. For thirty years, Volokh has been a professor at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, where he has taught First Amendment law, copyright law, criminal law, tort law, and firearms regulation policy. Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (7th ed., 2020) and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed., 2016), as well as more than 100 law review articles. He is the founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog. Before coming to UCLA, Volokh clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the US Supreme Court.
