Education
One of America’s biggest and most tragic failures is the inexcusably low level of academic achievement of too many students in too many schools in our K-12 public education system, especially those in lower socio-economic circumstances. There is no acceptable excuse for such consistently poor performance from our public system, but there is an irrefutable explanation. The K-12 public education system in America is a monopoly, and monopolies ultimately fail because power is concentrated in the hands of the provider, not the consumer, empowering the former at the expense of the latter. Enjoying about a 90% market share in most communities across the country, the system (former U.S. Education Secretary Bill Bennett called it the blob) neither rewards good results nor penalizes poor ones. When both are treated the same, there is no incentive to do the hard work necessary to excel. Mediocrity, or worse, has been the predictable outcome. Were traditional public schools forced to compete for customers, as public charter and private schools do, with parents, rather than the system, controlling the dollars, their results would improve dramatically and quickly.
While TSI is totally committed to publicly funded education, it remains an aggressive advocate for changing the current public education systems funding model, the cause of its failure. By directing funding to parents (consumers), funding that currently goes to school districts (providers), the former will be empowered, the latter will be compelled to compete to attract students, and the marketplace will do its magic.
High quality education is essential to the survival and prosperity of America, and to the preservation of our founding principles and values. Empowering parents – while disempowering the bureaucracy – is the best way to improve student learning. Making the public education system accountable to parents is one of the most important missions that TSI can undertake, as doing so will force it to address ignorance and indolence, the root causes of many of society’s seemingly intractable problems, rather than just the symptoms.
TSI is currently active in the recruiting, training, and supporting of community members to serve on local Boards of Education. Why? Because policy is set at the Board level, and it is there that important, high impact policy decisions are made, and it is there that parents should be empowered to exercise control. TSI is also active in developing advocacy programming to ensure the public is knowledgeable about policy issues that school boards are considering: an example of being bold, creative, entrepreneurial, and exercising the character needed to champion and successfully implement needed, but often unpopular and fiercely resisted, change.
When America’s children can read, write, add, subtract, think critically; when they embrace the universal, currently controversial, principles central to our Founders’ vision; when they appreciate and accept their role in protecting their special birthright as Americans; when they are committed to personal sacrifice in order to advance freedom and liberty, they will be independent of mind and spirit, and TSI will have made a meaningful contribution to America’s future.
Homelessness
TSI’s activism can help address the underlying cause of homelessness. While others focus on housing, TSI focuses on personal behavior—individuals taking personal responsibility for their own decisions and being accountable for their own actions. TSI seeks partnerships and collaborations with practitioners who share our goals of independence and self-sufficiency, who want to help and serve those committed to addressing their problems and becoming free of the cause of their problems. Put simply, we exist to help them help themselves become self-sufficient and independent.
TSI recognizes that the homeless problem is complicated, and addressing it requires taking different approaches to its differing populations. While we are compassionate, we do not want to be enablers of those who are capable of helping themselves but choose to do otherwise. Too often, homelessness is a catchword expression describing the problem as being a lack of affordable brick and mortar. That shortage is a reality and addressing it may be an answer for some individuals finding themselves in troubled circumstances beyond their control. Some need help and support, and TSI appreciates that necessity. But in many cases, homelessness is caused by personal choices, and TSI recognizes the difference. Different situations call for different approaches. Subsidized housing should be a reward for those who earn it by changing their behavior, and not an entitlement for those who choose to continue whatever behavior caused, and continues to cause, their homelessness. TSI is committed to supporting those who want to help themselves, not to enabling those who don’t.
Josephs Initiative
Community redevelopment often fails because those trying to “help” often parachute “experts” into neighborhoods who know nothing about them and the people in them, and who lack real world, on the ground expertise, credibility, and ownership. TSI believes that there are heroes, Josephs, within troubled communities who, with the right type of support, are best positioned to provide effective help and leadership. Thankfully, there are courageous men and women dedicated to improving the lives of residents in THEIR neighborhoods, most of whom have faced the same challenges facing those they are trying to help. These community healers bring experience-driven, often imaginative, self-reliant qualities that help those in need regain control over their lives by taking personal responsibility for pursuing their own self-sufficiency and independence.
Just as the Biblical Joseph rose from slavery and prison to advise the pharaoh successfully, these indigenous grassroots leaders – with support from TSI and others – can enrich the lives of those in distress. Since many of these Josephs are often emerging leaders without a long track record or proven metrics, they are frequently overlooked by traditional foundations. When TSI determines that its support may provide a lifeline to initiatives that have potential for major impact in the pursuit of our stated goals, then TSI is comfortable being a “seed capital” partner, taking outsized risk in pursuit of potential outsized results. TSI is a social entrepreneur supporting other social entrepreneurs.