Dignity
What to know: Holding the homeless responsible for their actions isn’t “punishment,” the head of a Reno shelter explains—it affords them a dignity that hand-outs alone don’t.
The TPPF take: When someone can spend a lifetime in the same poverty-based system, “compassion” begins to look less like true help and more like resignation.
“Too often, approaches to poverty reflect this shift: systems designed to support end up maintaining the status quo, rather than moving people forward,” says TPPF’s Hannah Bruck. “Yet dignity requires something more. It demands recognition of individual agency, potential, and the capacity for growth. When dignity is overlooked, policy can unintentionally reinforce dependency. When it is recognized, policy can become a pathway to self-sufficiency.”
For more on homelessness, click here.
The Wrong Lesson?
What to know: The Atlantic says people are “learning the wrong lesson” from Mississippi’s dramatic improvement in educational standing: It’s not just about phonics.
The TPPF take: The Mississippi Miracle is the product of a sustained desire by lawmakers, agencies, and school-level leaders to maintain reforms long enough, and seriously enough, for literacy gains to take hold.
“Texas is not starting from scratch on similar reforms,” says TPPF’s Cameron Abrams. “Unlike the weaker half-measures the Atlantic describes in other states, Texas already has much of the institutional material in place: reading academies, statewide screening requirements, science-of-reading training, and agency infrastructure capable of carrying reform beyond the level of simple rhetoric.”
For more on teaching, click here.
Enforcing the Laws
What to know: New Jersey officials are moving to limit cooperation with the federal government on immigration enforcement.
The TPPF take: States have a role in immigration enforcement, and they have a right to defend themselves. TPPF has now joined with 100 other conservative leaders and organizations in support of legislation affirming those rights.
“The Constitution does not leave states defenseless,” says TPPF’s Greg Sindelar. “This coalition reflects a broad and growing consensus that states possess inherent sovereign authority to protect their citizens and territory, a principle rooted in the founding era and reinforced by decades of constitutional practice.”
For more on immigration enforcement, click here.