Maintain Class Size Limits

“To make public education our highest priority, we believe the state should…enforce and extend class size limits to allow every student to receive necessary individualized attention.”

More Students in Classrooms

"Create flexibility for school districts under the class size limit mandate."

Solve the Dropout Crisis

“Proper funding of all our schools to meet the needs of students who are most at risk of dropping out is essential.”

Ignore the Dropout Crisis

[Nothing]

Support Pre-K & Early Childhood Development

“To make public education our highest priority, we believe the state should provide universal access to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.”

Oppose Pre-K & Early Childhood Development

"We urge Congress to repeal government sponsored programs that deal with early childhood development."

Promote Bilingualism

“Promote multi-language instruction, beginning in elementary school, to make all students fluent in English and at least one other language.”

One Language Only

"We have room for but one language here and that is the English language."

End Public Ed for Immigrant Students

"We encourage legislation that prohibits enrollment in free public schools of non-citizens unlawfully present in the United States."

College Accessibility for Texans

“Texas Democrats believe all Texans should have the opportunity and be encouraged to pursue affordable higher education at public universities, community colleges, and technical schools.”

Do Away with Merit Based Admission

"We oppose automatic admissions rules (such as the top 10%) which are based solely on class ranking."

Making College Affordable

“ Republican 'tuition deregulation' - cleverly named to imply an easing of burdens - has dramatically increased the financial burden and forced many students from middle income families to take on substantial debt to avoid being priced out of college.

Nothing to Rein-In Tuition Costs

[Nothing]

• restoration of formula contact hour funding to the level prior to Republican cuts, adjusted for inflation and student growth;
• legislative rollback of tuition and fees to affordable levels to reflect the restored funding;
• federal income tax credits for college tuition;
• full funding of TEXAS Grants and reforming and reopening the mismanaged state Prepaid Tuition Program, to provide higher education to more Texans without excessive debt burden;
• legislation to reduce the inordinately high costs of college textbooks, technical manuals and other instructional materials;"

Support Texas DREAM Act

“We support the continuation of the Texas DREAM Act.”

Oppose Texas DREAM Act

"We recommend three levels of college tuition: In state requiring proof of Texas legal citizenship, Out of State requiring proof of US citizenship, and, nonresident legal alien. Non-US citizens should not be eligible for state or federal grants, or loans."

Raise the Minimum Wage

“To improve wages and working conditions, we believe the minimum wage must be raised, enforced, and applied across-the-board meaningfully to restore lost purchasing power of all workers. It must be indexed to keep it from eroding again. Employees should be paid a living wage with provisions for decent health care and retirement benefits.”

Repeal the Minimum Wage

"We believe the Minimum Wage Law should be repealed."

Oppose Sales Tax Extension & Increase

"Enact a constitutional amendment to prevent extending the sales tax to food and medicine and oppose efforts to impose a national sales tax."

Increase & Expand Sales Tax

"We recommend a national sales tax." "We urge the Legislature to abolish property taxes for the purpose of funding schools and to shift the tax burden to a consumption-based tax while maintaining or reducing the overall tax burden."

Protecting U.S. Citizen Children

“Continue the United States’ constitutional provision making all persons born in this country are citizens of this country.”

Repeal Birthright Citizenship

"We call on the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of these United States to clarify Section 1 of the 14th amendment to limit citizenship by birth to those born to a citizen of the United States: with no exceptions."

Earned Path to Legal Status

"Texas Democrats recognize that a workable immigration policy requires a no-nonsense solution instead of proposals that serve only as political props and wedge issues designed to incite fear for partisan gain. [...] A clear and uniformly enforced federal immigration policy is long overdue. The fundamental tenets of a comprehensive immigration policy require an aggressive yet practical approach, including measures that would:

• eliminate bureaucratic logjams that delay and frustrate those who attempt to follow the rules to become citizens;
• establish a path to citizenship for those who meet qualifications and seek to become part of our national community."

No Fix for Broken Immigration System

"We oppose illegal immigration, amnesty in any form leading to citizenship, or legal status for illegal immigrants."

Oppose Arizona-style legislation

"Texas will not become Arizona, and we strongly oppose:

• any law that would, through its enforcement, result in discrimination; intimidation or victimization of citizens based on their race, ethnicity or appearance;
• any law that would force law enforcement agencies to divert limited resources and manpower from their primary duty to protect citizens and prevent crime in order to enforce immigration policy that is the responsibility of the federal government;"

Support Arizona-style legislation

"We support:

• elimination of federal and state funding to cities with "sanctuary" laws;
• empowering state and local law enforcement agencies with authority and resources to detain illegal immigrants;
• elimination of federal and state funding to cities with "sanctuary" laws;"

Treating all Individuals with Respect

"We strongly oppose:

• measures that attempt to improperly limit the constitutional requirement to provide for the health, education, and safety needs of individuals and communities."

Inhumane Treatment

Support:

• "elimination of laws requiring hospitals to give non-emergency care to illegals;
• elimination of social security benefits or federal and state funding to illegal’s for education."

Oppose Expanding Border Fence

"We strongly oppose:

• any effort to expand the existing border fence without regard to the border economy, environmental impact or property rights;
• wasteful efforts like Governor Perry’s "virtual wall" of border cameras that resulted in only a handful of apprehensions at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars per arrest;"

Support Expanding Border Fence

" 'Order on the borders' is basic to solving complex issues of illegal immigration."

Protect and Preserve Social Security

"We oppose privatization of the Social Security program as fiscally irresponsible, and consider the use of our tax dollars as capital to invest in the stock market as a threat to the income security of working Americans."

Privatize Social Security

"We support an immediate and orderly transition to a system of private pensions based on the concept of individual retirement accounts, and gradually phasing out the Social Security tax."

Protect Voting Rights for All Texans

"We support redistricting standards and practices that demand compliance with the Voting Rights Act, discourage savaging regions and communities for partisan gain, and preserve the constituent-representative relationship to the extent possible to give voters the right to elect their representatives instead of letting representatives pick their voters."

Eliminate Minority Voting Districts

"We oppose any identification of citizens by race, origin, or creed and oppose use of any such identification for purposes of creating voting districts."

Encourage Voter Participation

"Texas Democrats support:

• the principled and courageous efforts of Democratic legislators to defeat restrictive voter ID and proof of citizenship legislation that is not warranted by any evidence of voter impersonation at the polls and would serve only to reduce turnout among the elderly, poor, and people of color;
• expansion of the types of legal identification that can be used to verify residence when a voter does not have a voter registration card at the polling place;"

Suppress Voters

"Specifically, we support a federal or state government-issued photo ID at in-person voting;"