Pushing the Message on the Public Dime

What to know: Social justice activists serving on the San Antonio city council want to spend $170,000 to install rainbow-colored sidewalks, raising legitimate concerns about waste and abuse. But a few councilmembers are fighting back, arguing that: “Tax dollars should not fund individual viewpoints.”

The TPPF take: Pushing politics is not a core function of city government.

“City governments have no business pushing politics on the public dime. It’s a misuse of public money and an abuse of the public trust,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “This episode is a reminder that state lawmakers still have much more work to do to rein in woke cities.”

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Political Violence

What to know: The left is working to normalize political violence, a former FBI agent warns.

The TPPF take: The left is seeking martyrs to help fuel an anti-Trump uprising.

“Elected officials on the left are whipping up hysteria not just to fundraise and fend off primary challenges from their even more extreme flanks, but to provoke confrontations that could produce martyrs,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore. “Martyrs, as history shows, are powerful accelerants for political violence. They rally the base and demonize opponents — with the two main strategic objectives being to pressure administrations to retreat while costing Republicans in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential contest.”

For more on political violence, click here.

K-Shaped System

What to know: The COVID-19 pandemic left long-lasting negative effects on the U.S. education system, which students and teachers are still dealing with.

The TPPF take: One effect has been a “K-shaped” education system that sees progress among some students and decline among others.

“While children from affluent families, such as mine, have access to parental interventions and private schools, children from less affluent families are often unable to access parental or teacher-based interventions,” says Dane Glenn, a member of TPPF’s Austin Liberty Leadership Council. “This creates a K-Shaped outcome: Affluent students advance while disadvantaged ones fall further behind. This widening gap compounds over time, limiting economic mobility for students from lower-income families.”

For more on education, click here.