Recent Policy Studies

• Immigration
  

  Senate Immigration Reform: Another Misguided Call for Comprehensive Legislation

  By Jessica Zuckerman, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Issue Brief, 01/30/2013
  

  The “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of Senators, has announced what core principles they want to see in the next immigration legislation. These principles, however, do not adequately address the tough issues that have to be tackled to provide lasting and beneficial fixes that strengthen the U.S. economy, security, and civil society. What is needed instead is a problem-solving approach to immigration reform, one that does not try to group all of our nation’s immigration problems together and solve them in one colossal bill, but rather addresses each of the many challenges in their own track. Only by addressing each of these challenges individually can they receive the gravity of attention they deserve and true solutions for our nation’s broken immigration system be forged.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  Wounds That Will Not Heal: Affirmative Action and Our Continuing Racial Divide

  By Russell K. Nieli, Encounter Books
  
  Book, 01/30/2013
  

  Racial preference policies came on the national scene as a response to the urban riots of the late 1960s. Many influential policy planners concluded that more had to be done to address the problem of black poverty and alienation than could be achieved through the color-blind theory of justice that had done so much to inspire the earlier Civil Rights Movement. In the more than forty years that preference policies have been with us, however, they continue to provoke resentment and grievance, particularly among poor whites, Asians, and so-called “white ethnics.”

  
  
  
• Education
  

  The K-12 Implosion

  By Glenn H. Reynolds, Encounter Books
  
  Book, 01/30/2013
  

  Economist Herb Stein famously said that something that can’t go on forever, won’t. For decades now, America has been putting ever-growing amounts of money into its K-12 education system, while getting steadily poorer results. Now parents are losing faith in public schools, new alternatives are appearing, and change is on the way. The K-12 Implosion provides a succinct description of what’s wrong, and where the solutions are likely to appear, along with advice for parents, educators, and taxpayers.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  The Gun Ban Lobby and Its Funders

  By James Simpson, Capital Research Center
  
  Foundation Watch, 01/30/2013
  

  The gun ban lobby includes not just a few groups like the Brady Center but also the mainstream media as a whole. Its preferred tactics are to use misleading terms and to ignore the actual facts of gun control’s failure.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The Sources of State and Local Tax Revenues

  By Elizabeth Malm, Ellen Kant, Tax Foundation
  
  Fiscal Facts, 01/30/2013
  

  In September, the Census Bureau released its most recent Annual Surveys of State and Local Government Finance data, which provides a comprehensive picture of the funding sources of state and local governments for the 2010 fiscal year. State and local governments obtain income from a variety of sources, and the breakdown changes drastically from state to state. Proportions vary based on the types of taxes and fees administered within state borders, the types of resources within the state, the amount of intergovernmental transfers, and the policy priorities of state and local governments.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  State and Local Governments Impose Hefty Taxes on Cell Phone Consumers

  By Joseph Henchman, Scott Drenkard, Tax Foundation
  
  Fiscal Facts, 01/30/2013
  

  The number of U.S. cell phone subscribers has grown significantly in recent years from 48.7 million in 1997 to 321.7 million in 2012. That period has also seen a fall in landline telephones, with 34 percent of households now only using wireless phones. This trend toward cell phones has not gone unnoticed by state and local governments, many of which have targeted wireless services for higher taxes.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  North Carolina Tax Reform Options: A Guide to Fair, Simple, Pro-Growth Reform

  By Joseph Henchman, Scott Drenkard, Tax Foundation
  
  Policy Analysis, 01/30/2013
  

  In fall 2012, the Carolina Business Coalition commissioned us to prepare a review of the North Carolina tax system and recommend possible improvements. We undertook this project as a national organization familiar with tax developments in many states, with the view that tax systems should adhere to sound economic principles, and in the spirit of providing useful information and observations for North Carolina policymakers, journalists, and citizens as they evaluate their state’s tax system.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The Debt Ceiling: Assets Available to Prevent Default

  By Jason J. Fichtner, Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center
  
  Mercatus on Policy, 01/30/2013
  

  The debt ceiling, or the legal limit the federal government may borrow, is set currently at $16.4 trillion. In his latest report, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner predicts that the United States will need to increase the debt ceiling sometime between February 15, 2013, and early March 2013. The Congressional Research Service estimates the federal government will have to issue an additional $700 billion in debt above the current statutory limit to finance obligations for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2013. This article explores the different problems and reforms that need to be addressed before raising the next debt ceiling.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  Guild By Association

  By Jon Sanders, John Locke Foundation
  
  Spotlight, 01/30/2013
  

  North Carolina features over 50 occupational licensing boards, more than most other states. In practice, it protects current members of a profession from competition, while increasing costs to consumers and would-be professionals blocked from the field. Economists studying occupational licensing generally find it restricts the supply of labor and drives up the price of labor and services. Without state licensure, private providers of reviews and certification, internet sites and consumer applications, social media, and competitors and market forces would ensure quality and safety. The government would still enforce safety and quality through the court system.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Rotten Reporting in the Peach State

  By Dick M. Carpenter, Lee McGrath, Institute for Justice
  
  Policy Analysis, 01/30/2013
  

  Georgia has some of the worst civil forfeiture laws in the nation, a problem compounded by law enforcement agencies’ routine failure to report forfeiture revenue and expenditures as required by law. But a 2011 Institute for Justice lawsuit forced some agencies to begin filing reports, and a new requirement that agencies post these reports online is starting to take effect. This interim report examines reports made public so far and concludes that forfeiture in reporting in the Peach State is still rotten. Reports filed by 58 law enforcement agencies for the year 2011 reveal $2.76 million in forfeitures under state law. By contrast, federal reports show 147 agencies taking in $32 million in forfeiture revenue in the same year under federal law. Moreover, many state reports that have been filed lack even basic details necessary for proper public oversight. Georgia’s civil forfeiture laws desperately need reform, but they also need greater transparency.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Risky Business: Insurance Markets and Regulation

  By Lawrence S. Powell, Independence Institute
  
  Book, 01/30/2013
  

  Today insurance regulation in the United States is at a crossroads. It used to be a given that the insurance industry would resist efforts to move away from a state-based approach toward regulation—but no more. Some segments of the insurance industry now favor a greater role for the federal government, and although other stakeholders oppose calls to transition to a federal system, the winds of change appear to be on the horizon. But what types of reforms would best serve the interests of consumers? And what lessons can be learned from previous reform efforts?

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  A Stacked Deck: How Minnesota’s Civil Forfeiture Laws Put Citizen’s Property at Risk

  By Dick M. Carpenter, Lee McGrath, Angela C. Erickson, Institute for Justice
  
  Policy Analysis, 01/29/2013
  

  This report examines the use of civil forfeiture in Minnesota, a state with unusually detailed forfeiture reporting, and finds that the state’s civil forfeiture system stacks the deck against property owners. Not only do law enforcement agencies receive a cut of the proceeds from property they take, but state law also makes it hard for people to win their property back. From 2003 to 2010, forfeiture revenues in Minnesota jumped by 75 percent, even as crime rates declined. By and large, these revenues did not come from large busts of criminal kingpins: The average value of forfeited property was only about $1,000. Worse, new data from late 2010 show that few forfeitures are reviewed by judges and property owners rarely challenge forfeitures, likely because of the small values involved and the daunting task of bringing a civil lawsuit. This lack of judicial oversight and a strong financial incentive in forfeiture create a situation ripe for abuse.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  School Leaders Matter

  By Gregory F. Branch, Eric A. Hanushek, Steven G. Rivkin, Education Next
  
  Education Next, 01/29/2013
  

  This study provides new evidence on the importance of school leadership by estimating individual principals’ contributions to growth in student achievement. Our approach is quite similar to studies that measure teachers’ “value added” to student achievement, except that the calculation is applied to the entire school. Specifically, we measure how average gains in achievement, adjusted for individual student and school characteristics, differ across principals—both in different schools and in the same school at different points in time. From this, we are able to determine how much effectiveness varies from one principal to the next.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Questioning the Quality of Virtual Schools

  By Matthew M. Chingos, Education Next
  
  Education Next, 01/29/2013
  

  Full-time virtual schools, in which students learn primarily from their own homes, clearly are not for everyone. Even after their recent enrollment growth, only one-half of 1 percent of public-school students in the U.S. attend full-time virtual schools. The key question for policymakers is whether virtual schools should be among the choices available to families deciding how best to educate their children. The National Education Policy Center report argues they should not be, calling for states to “slow or put a moratorium on the growth of full-time virtual schools.” But policymakers only control the growth of enrollment in virtual schools when they decide whether or not to allow them to exist and what cap, if any, to put on their enrollments. Once those decisions are made, enrollment in virtual schools is mostly up to parents.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Combating the ‘Culture of Can’t’

  By Frederick Hess, Whitney Downs, Education Next
  
  Education Next, 01/29/2013
  

  Reformers are right to fight for policy change, and to offer moral and political support to bold education leaders. At the same time, they’re wrong to imagine that changing policies regarding teacher evaluation, school turnarounds, or school choice will deliver as hoped, absent efforts to help school officials to think differently and then provide the support they need to tackle rules, regulations, and contracts in new ways. Thus, reformers struggle to narrow the scope of collective bargaining, only to see administrators fumble the hard-won opportunities. They enact teacher evaluation and turnaround policies whose efficacy and impact rest entirely on the ability of officials to execute them competently and aggressively in the face of contracts, embedded routines, and recalcitrant cultures.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  To Confront Cyber Threats, We Must Rethink the Law of Armed Conflict

  By Jeremy A. Rabkin, Ariel Rabkin, Hoover Institution
  
  Essay, 01/29/2013
  

  As cyber attackers grow bolder in menacing a wide variety of targets around the world, our law must evolve to meet these new threats. While we can draw on some of the categories in existing legal norms, cyber attacks are a new phenomenon in the history of conflict that requires new norms as well. Prior to the twentieth century, international law had to cope with many gray areas in a world that was not so neatly ordered as that envisioned by the UN Charter and post-war Geneva Conventions. In the cyber realm, the lines of conflict have again become blurred. We can begin to meet future cyber challenges by adapting old practices and institutions.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Why Are Recent College Graduates Underemployed?

  By Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart, Jonathan Robe, Center for College Affordability and Productivity
  
  Policy Papers, 01/29/2013
  

  Economists for generations have long accepted the law of diminishing returns—when one adds more and more resources, at some point the marginal contribution to output falls. The law applies to education as to almost everything in life. One manifestation of it in American university life is the underemployment of college graduates; we might be seriously overinvested in higher education. This study adds to that concern, and further suggests the common assumption that increased investment in higher education promotes economic growth is highly questionable.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  A Nation Still at Risk: The Continuing Crisis of American Education and Its State Solution

  By Casey Given, Americans for Prosperity
  
  Policy Papers, 01/29/2013
  

  Although not much has improved in American schools since A Nation at Risk, a study providing educational policy recommendations for reform in 1983, at least the reforms it inspired over the past three decades provide plentiful evidence of what works and what does not in educational reform. The federal government’s standards-based reforms clearly do not, as every major Department of Education initiative has brought little improvement in educational outcomes. Fortunately, the states have started to stand up to Washington’s one-size-fits-all failures, reasserting their constitutional right to run their public education systems by embracing innovative reforms. While not every state-based reform is flawless, school choice initiatives like charters and vouchers have achieved considerable success. Clearly the future of effective educational reform can only take place on this more local level by aligning parents and teachers’ incentives to providing the best education for their student the public can afford.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  The Best Teachers in the World

  By John E. Chubb, Hoover Institution
  
  Hoover Digest, 01/29/2013
  

  There is no material reason why the United States cannot have the best teachers in the world. More than anything, it requires a willingness to let go of an approach, rooted in prescription and regulation, that has outlived its usefulness. This will not be easy politically. But nothing fundamental ever is. In the final analysis, if the nation wants an educational profession that is home to the best and the brightest, it will need to trust the profession and hold the profession strictly accountable for doing the right things.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  A Better Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States

  By Derek Scissors, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Issue Brief, 01/29/2013
  

  Caution and secrecy are often needed in national security, but foreign investment is first and foremost an economic activity. As such, transparency and timeliness are ideal and secrecy a drawback. Operational freedom for CFIUS is important, but the U.S. should also work to improve the environment for foreign investors. Further, the current informality of the congressional role breeds random political interference and is self-defeating. The U.S. can do better.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  North Korea Nuclear Test: Time for U.S. and U.N. to Get Serious on Sanctions

  By Bruce Klingner, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Issue Brief, 01/29/2013
  

  The U.S. is losing ground in its efforts against the North Korean threat. Last month’s successful North Korean rocket launch was a huge leap forward in its decades-long quest to threaten the U.S. with a nuclear weapon. North Korean officials privately claim that Pyongyang already has the capability to reach the U.S. with nuclear-tipped missiles. After examining the recovered North Korean missile, Seoul estimated that it could have reached the West Coast of the U.S. The Obama Administration should overcome its reluctance to impose more extensive punitive measures against Pyongyang as well as the foreign entities that assist its nuclear and missile programs. It should also make clear to the new Chinese leadership that continued sheltering of its recalcitrant ally only increases the potential for a crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  2012 Cost Analysis of the New Energy Economy

  By William Yeatman, Competitive Enterprise Institute
  
  Policy Note, 01/29/2013
  

  Before Bill Ritter became Governor of Colorado, state regulators required utilities to deliver power to ratepayers at the least possible cost. Ritter’s New Energy Economy changed the rules so that clean energy took priority above affordable energy. In fact, it seemed not to matter whether the electricity generated by these “new energy technologies” was even needed. The bill is now coming due, and it is not pretty. In 2012 alone, Colorado ratepayers spent almost half a billion dollars on New Energy Economy policies, in return for unneeded electricity.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Confronting the U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Skills Gap

  By Thomas A. Hemphill, Waheeda Lillevik, Mark J. Perry, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 01/28/2013
  

  Although there are some differences in estimates of the magnitude of the current skilled worker shortage in manufacturing, there is general consensus that a skills gap exists and that it will likely worsen in the near future. Fortunately, the issue of the skills gap is generating a fair amount of national media and industry attention, which is bringing some well-deserved debate to an important topic that is crucial to a key sector of the U.S. economy. The future of America’s advanced manufacturing sector looks very promising overall, especially if the reshoring/insourcing trend continues and manufacturers can find skilled workers for the factory floor of the 21st century. Now that the manufacturing sector and the education establishment are working together to confront the advanced manufacturing skills gap and train skilled workers for advanced manufacturing, we are hopefully on a path toward resolving the current skilled worker shortage.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Michigan Becomes the 24th Right-to-Work State

  By Steven J. Allen, Capital Research Center
  
  Labor Watch, 01/28/2013
  

  Michigan, the home of the United Auto Workers, now has a law guaranteeing a worker’s right to choose whether to join, or pay dues to, a labor union. The law was passed after the failure of a union-backed constitutional amendment that would have given unions unprecedented power. Some are calling that amendment, known as Prop 2, “the unions’ Afghanistan.”

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ Doctrine: A Pretext for Disarming Israel

  By James Simpson, Capital Research Center
  
  Organization Trends, 01/28/2013
  

  The Left’s long love affair with global government continues, as does its hostility to the interests of America and America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Radical donors like George Soros and activists like Code Pink’s Jodie Evans will continue to press this agenda in the new year, especially with a president who no longer must face American voters.

  
  
  
• Philanthropy
  

  A Reaganite Entrepreneur’s Flawed Philanthropy: An Engineering Genius Didn’t Design his Foundation to Honor his Donor Intent

  By Martin Morse Wooster, Capital Research Center
  
  Foundation Watch, 01/28/2013
  

  This co-founder of a pioneering high-tech firm was a conservative Republican who spent years supporting politicians and public intellectuals on the Right. But the eminent engineer wasn’t careful when designing his own multibillion-dollar foundation, which now follows only those threads of his donor intent that can be woven into fashionable leftism.

  
  
  
• Retirement/Social Security
  

  Compulsory Super at 20: ‘Libertarian Paternalism’ Without the Libertarianism

  By Stephen Kirchner, Centre for Independent Studies
  
  Policy Monographs, 01/28/2013
  

  Australia’s approach to retirement incomes policy has three pillars: the means-tested age pension; compulsory superannuation; and voluntary saving, including saving via superannuation over and above that mandated by the superannuation guarantee. This paper examines the economic case for compulsory superannuation contributions and questions whether compulsory super is the most effective way of promoting household and national saving and reducing future demands on the federal budget from an ageing population when compared to alternative policy options. Most of the economic arguments for compulsory superannuation are second-best arguments made on the assumption that first-best outcomes are unattainable.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  The Other Bakken Boom: A Tribe Atop the Nation’s Biggest Oil Play

  By Sierra Crane-Murdoch, PERC – The Property and Environment Research Center
  
  Case Study, 01/28/2013
  

  Fort Berthold Indian Reservation sits at the center of the Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota. Since 2010, hundreds of reservation wells have generated more than 30 million barrels of oil, earning the tribal nation more than $500 million. But capitalizing on the boom has not been easy. All Indian minerals are managed in trust by the U.S. Department of Interior, a task largely delegated to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. To drill on Indian land, companies must endure a slow and costly bureaucratic gauntlet; many avoid it altogether. By 2009, impatient to open the reservation to oil development, tribal leaders pushed the BIA to lease nearly all of Fort Berthold’s trust land—both allottee and tribal—for drilling. But while mineral owners off the reservation were earning thousands of dollars for each acre leased, most allottees within reservation boundaries saw only a few hundred.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  New Pathways for Teachers, New Promises for Students: A Vision for Developing Excellent Teachers

  By Timothy Knowles, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Special Report, 01/28/2013
  

  The demand to improve teacher quality is not going away. To truly transform teaching, we must also transform schooling, and all stakeholders must take unfamiliar steps to make schools better places to work and learn. This includes organized labor, which must become a self-regulating entity—ever vigilant about improving the quality of the teacher workforce—or face growing existential threats.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Deciphering Iranian Decision Making and Strategy Today

  By Michael Rubin, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Middle Eastern Outlook, 01/28/2013
  

  Iran’s political structure is complex and might appear mysterious: the presidency is more about style than substance, and it is the supreme leader who wields dictatorial power. As the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has grown more powerful, the Islamic Republic has renewed its drive to export its revolutionary ideology abroad in an attempt to expand its influence and strategically position itself to counter rivals like the United States and Israel. Iran claims defense of Shi’ism as an excuse to propagate its radical influence in nations that pose a growing threat all over the world. The United States and its allies must understand the sources of influence on Iranian political and military strategy and ways Tehran crafts its strategy and be willing to establish red lines on issues such as Iran’s nuclear program if they are to counter the threats posed by an increasingly bold Tehran.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Choosing to Succeed

  By Lindsey M. Burke, et al., The Heritage Foundation
  
  Special Report, 01/28/2013
  

  As shown in this article, when children are placed in educational environments of their parents’ choice, they succeed and their parents become active and involved. It changes their lives dramatically when their children are doing well in educational environments. It is because of expanded educational options for the families who have had no choice, we see happy endings—not only for the children, but also for their families and their communities.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Indo–Pakistani Tension: Pakistan Should Crack Down on Militant Infiltration

  By Lisa Curtis, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Issue Brief, 01/28/2013
  

  Tensions between India and Pakistan are heating up along the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir. And while the U.S. needs to urge restraint on both sides to prevent escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors, the onus is on Pakistan to demonstrate that it is cracking down on militants on its side of the border. The U.S. should pay close attention to developments along the Indo–Pakistani border in order to help prevent a breakout of hostilities, but it should resist any temptation to try to directly mediate between the historical foes.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  U.S. Must Enforce Peacekeeping Cap to Lower America’s U.N. Assessment

  By Brett D. Schaefer, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/28/2013
  

  The U.N. General Assembly has approved its “scale of assessments” for 2013–2015, determining the share of U.N. budgets that each member state is expected to pay. A decade ago, the U.N. committed to lowering the U.S. peacekeeping assessment to 25 percent, and by 2009, the U.S. share had fallen to less than 26 percent. In 2010, however, the U.S. assessment rose sharply, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. The U.S. share of the peacekeeping budget has now risen again to above 28.36 percent over the next three years, which will lead to yet more costs to U.S. taxpayers. Congress and the Obama Administration encouraged these reversals through amendments to U.S. law allowing payments above 25 percent. The U.S. should resume pressure on the U.N. to fulfill its commitment to lower the U.S. peacekeeping assessment to 25 percent.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  The Measure of a Superpower: A Two Major Regional Contingency Military for the 21st Century

  By Daniel Goure, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Special Report, 01/28/2013
  

  How much military force does a global superpower require? Answering this question has challenged U.S. leaders and defense planners for more than 20 years. In the immediate aftermath of the first Gulf War, U.S. leaders decided to use the requirement to conduct two major regional conventional contingencies (MRCs) at the same time as the basis for sizing the U.S. military. Every subsequent review of U.S. defense policy and programs has reaffirmed the two-war standard. In fact, every Administration for the past two decades found that a force sized to fight two wars was essential for meeting the ongoing demands for forward presence, crisis response, regional deterrence, humanitarian assistance, building partnership capacity, homeland defense, and support to civil authorities.

  
  
  
• The Constitution/Civil Liberties
  

  The Constitutionality of Traditional Marriage

  By John C. Eastman, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Legal Memorandum, 01/28/2013
  

  In United States v. Windsor and Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of government policies that reflect traditional marriage—that is, marriage as a union between one man and one woman. If the Court does not dismiss these cases on jurisdictional grounds, it should act to uphold traditional marriage. Nothing in the Court’s jurisprudence suggests that the right of same-sex couples to have their relationships recognized as marriages is so fundamental as to be protected by the Constitution’s Due Process Clause. Nor does the Equal Protection Clause require that result, given the societal purpose and value of marriage as furthering procreation and child-rearing. Because the Constitution does not speak to this question, it is one that is left to ordinary political processes, not to judicial fiat.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Citizens’ Guide to Spokane’s Proposition 2

  By Chris Cargill, Jason Mercier, Washington Policy Center
  
  Policy Note, 01/28/2013
  

  The tax limitation policy set forth under Proposition 2 goes no further than what Spokane voters have already approved five times at the state level, and it does not go as far as tax limitation requirements in other states. By passing the charter change, Spokane voters will be clearly framing the city’s budget debate and sending a strong message to state legislators that rising state costs should not be shifted to local taxpayers.

  
  
  
• Retirement/Social Security
  

  A Comparison of Missouri Pension Plans

  By John S. Howe, Show-Me Institute
  
  Policy Study, 01/28/2013
  

  State and local employees in Missouri typically are eligible to receive pension benefits upon retirement; the particular pension each worker is eligible for depends on the employer and the position. In this paper, we examine the return performance of five Missouri pensions.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The Effectiveness of Enterprise Zones in Missouri

  By David Stokes, Show-Me Institute
  
  Case Study, 01/28/2013
  

  There are a substantial number of government programs to stimulate economic investment in Missouri. There are 36 different state economic development tax credit programs, each with their own requirements and rules. But do these programs work? Do they accomplish their various goals, which have many different angles but all fall eventually into the categories of economic growth and job creation? These programs may not be as intense as a Soviet Five-Year Plan, but they are centralized economic planning nonetheless. Any time the government takes tax dollars and directs them to other areas of a market economy, it is engaged in central planning. Some planning is essential, but has this type of economic planning benefitted our state or our local communities?

  
  
  
• Education
  

  A Primer on Missouri’s Foundation Formula for K-12 Public Education

  By James V. Shuls, Show-Me Institute
  
  Policy Study, 01/28/2013
  

  During the 2006-07 school year, Missouri implemented a new method to fund K-12 public schools. The new foundation formula was the Missouri Legislature’s response to legal challenges brought against the previous formula regarding equity and adequacy. The new foundation formula sought to rectify those problems by elevating funding to adequate levels in all school districts and by leveling the playing field between property-rich and property-poor districts. Though the entire formula is detailed in chapter 163 of Missouri’s revised statutes, it can be very difficult to understand. This primer has been written to help Missourians better understand how their schools are funded.

  
  
  
• Elections, Transparency, & Accountability
  

  Union Money: 100 Percent Democrat. Really?

  By Deborah D. Thornton, Public Interest Institute
  
  Institute Brief, 01/25/2013
  

  Governor Branstad’s 2012 education reform proposal faced stiff resistance from entrenched factions in the traditional Iowa education establishment, specifically the teachers and government-worker unions. As a powerful, well-funded force in local, state, and national politics – these unions are engaged in a continuous battle to resist educational reform and defend the status quo. And all their money goes to the Democrats.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Hands-On Achievement: Why Massachusetts Vocational Technical Schools Have Low Dropout Rates

  By Alison L. Fraser, William Donovan, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research
  
  White Paper, 01/25/2013
  

  In Massachusetts, where an average of 10,000 high school students have dropped out of school annually over each of the past 10 years, the state’s vocational-technical high school network has been particularly effective at keeping students in school. This white paper presents case studies, and offers recommendations for state legislators and policymakers.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Climate Change: How the U.S. Should Lead

  By Nicolas Loris, Brett D. Schaefer, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Issue Brief, 01/25/2013
  

  Restricting greenhouse gas emissions, whether unilaterally or multilaterally, would result in significant economic costs for the U.S. economy. This is a serious decision with grave consequences. The U.S. should not unilaterally assume these burdens as a symbolic gesture hoping that other countries might emulate our example—repeated U.N. negotiations demonstrate the small likelihood of that outcome. The U.S. should act prudently by increasing its certainty about the underlying assumptions and resulting predictions of climate change, ensuring that the benefits justify the costs, and undertaking concrete commitments and actions only in the context of an overarching strategy that would actually have an impact on climate change if action is necessary.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Hagel, Kerry, and Brennan Senate Confirmation Hearings: U.S. Policy on Arctic Security

  By Luke Coffey, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Issue Brief, 01/25/2013
  

  America’s security interests in the Arctic region will only increase in the years to come. The forthcoming confirmation hearings are an important opportunity for the Senate to pose key questions about the direction of American Arctic security policy under President Obama in his second term. As other nations devote resources and assets in the region to secure their national interests, America cannot afford to fall behind.

  
  
  
• Labor
  

  Labor Unions: Declining Membership Shows Labor Laws Need Modernizing

  By James Sherk, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Issue Brief, 01/25/2013
  

  Congress should bring labor law into the 21st century. Congress should remove the Section 8(a)(2) proscription on employee involvement programs. Congress should also remove unions’ ability to veto individual raises. Some in Congress are trying to do so. Senator Marco Rubio (R–FL) and Representative Todd Rokita (R–IN) introduced the Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees (RAISE) Act, which would retain union rates as a wage floor while ensuring they never set a maximum on what employees earn. Such reforms would help make federal labor laws relevant to workers in the modern economy. The government should not limit employee voice in the workplace, nor should it prevent employees from getting ahead through hard work.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  The CFPB in Action: Consumer Bureau Harms Those It Claims to Protect

  By Diane Katz, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 01/25/2013
  

  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created in 2010 by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and imbued with unparalleled powers over virtually every consumer financial product and service. With rulemaking and enforcement now underway, there is ample evidence that agency operations represent a radical departure from long-standing regulatory standards. The CFPB’s actions are constricting the availability of financial products and services and raising costs—all of which will undermine business investment and consumer credit. Immediate reforms are necessary to impose accountability on the bureau. Ultimately, the CFPB should be eliminated and replaced by coordinated oversight of various enforcement functions among other financial regulators.

  
  
  
• Welfare
  

  The Unfinished Work of Welfare Reform

  By Robert Rector, Jennifer A. Marshall, The Heritage Foundation
  
  White Paper, 01/25/2013
  

  The 1996 welfare reform was enacted even under a Democratic president because the public was clearly behind its basic goals. It was clear that America’s welfare system was terribly dysfunctional and that addressing poverty and dependency would require making welfare beneficiaries work. These same truths are just as evident today; we are just as much in need of a robust reform effort with the strong support of the public. It is time to turn ending “welfare as we know it” from an old slogan into a reality.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Man, Sex, God, and Yale

  By Nathan Harden, Hillsdale College
  
  Imprimis, 01/25/2013
  

  The political freedom that makes a liberal arts education possible requires an ongoing and active defense of liberty. Try exercising academic freedom in a place like Tehran or Kabul! Here in the U.S., we take our liberty far too much for granted. To the extent that Yale and schools like it succeed in producing leaders who subscribe to the ideology of moral relativism—and who thus see no moral distinction between America and its enemies—we will likely be disabused of this false sense of security all too soon.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  The “Poor” Are Getting Richer

  By Niels Veldhuis, Charles Lammam, Amela Karagegovic, Fraser Institute
  
  Fraser Forum, 01/24/2013
  

  Most Canadians start off with a relatively low income because they are young, new to the workforce, and lack work and life experience. Once they acquire education and job-related skills, their income typically increases until it peaks in middle age and then drops again once they pass their peak earning years and prepare for retirement. The conclusion that Canadian incomes have stagnated and that inequality is on the rise couldn’t be further from the truth and misses one of the great Canadian virtues: We live in a dynamic society where the majority of us experience significant upward (and downward) income mobility over the course of our lives.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  What’s in Store for Canada Under Obama’s Second Term as President

  By Alexander Moens, Nicolas Fleet, Fraser Institute
  
  Fraser Forum, 01/24/2013
  

  As America’s biggest trading partner, Canada has a large stake in how both the overall US economy will fare in the next four years and how specific bilateral problems will be addressed. Regarding the former, there is a good deal of legitimate concern that Washington will not be able to make swift progress. In terms of the latter, the main areas of interest to Canada will be how much attention the second Obama administration will give to the Beyond the Border Vision agreed to in 2011 and to what extent trade obstacles in the energy sector such as the Keystone XL pipeline expansion will be addressed.