Texas Democrats - Strong Advocates Of Right To Public School Education

The word education means “to draw out’, facilitating realization of self-potential and latent talents of an individual. It encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also imparting knowledge, positive judgment and well-developed wisdom. Texas Democrats attach great importance to the power of education and rightly so. To quote famous Texas Democrat and President Lyndon B. Johnson

“At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems - the answer for all the problems of the world - come to a single word. That word is “education.”

- President Lyndon B. Johnson

To achieve their dream of providing every Texan child with access to education, Texas Democrats developed the following policy initiatives

Provide free public education : Texas Democrats believe in the right of every child to free public education and thereby provide all Texans an opportunity to achieve to their fullest potential. To ensure full accountability, public education must be 100% funded by the government. This initiative is not restricted to primary education alone, but extended to higher education and career education programs. To ensure quality of teaching, Texas Democrats propose adhering to the 22-1 class size limit, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs and improved funded equity to retain and attract qualified talented teaching professionals.

Improving Public Education: The aim of good education is to develop the latent talent of students and encourage innovative thinking (thinking out of the box to provide solutions to ordinary everyday problems). This is possible only when students are assessed through a comprehensive assessment system and latest teaching tools are employed. Texas Democrats are committed to improving public education in order to make a qualitative improvement in the students’ life.

• Improve Teacher Quality and Teaching Conditions : To provide quality education to students, it is important that we attract and retain qualified teaching professionals. This can only be done by improving teachers’ pay, benefits like health insurance and improve teaching and learning conditions at schools. Texas Democrats have promised to repeal regressive Republican provisions like “government pension offset and windfall elimination provision (which unfairly reduce Social Security benefits duly earned by Texas teachers and other school employees)” and “incentive pay programs (linking pay to student performance which is an unfair practice).

Ensure Safe Schools, Texas Democrats support the passage of the Dignity for All Students Act to ensure guaranteed safety for all students and support swift and fair enforcement of disciplinary standards. School campuses and functions must be weapon-free and drug-free.

Provide Tuition-Free Higher Education and Adult Education : Texas Democrats want to provide all Texans the opportunity to pursue higher education at an affordable cost at public universities, community colleges and technical schools. To achieve this noble objective, Texas Democrats propose to guarantee two years of tuition-free public college or post-secondary technical education, roll-back fees to affordable levels, expand the Texas Grants Program and reopen the Texas Tomorrow Program, etc

Texas Democrats are strong advocates of the right to education for every Texan child and support innovative approaches to ensure diversity in every Texas institution of higher education.