Priorities
- Increase the basic allotment or price per student from $6,180 to $7,500 to account for six years of inflation.
- Allow school districts to give market raises to our public educators.
- Adjust teacher retirement distributions automatically for inflation.
- Keep teachers’ health care insurance costs low while maintaining its quality.
- Increase funds for students with disabilities.
- Increase funds for security personnel and equipment.
- Reject School Vouchers, School Choice, or Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) proposed by the Texas GOP. These use public school funding to pay parents for private school tuition or homeschooling. The programs propose to pay parents $8,000 per student attending a private school or homeschool. Taxes raised for public schools should fund public schools, not private programs.
- Fight for a Texas constitutional amendment that guarantees reproductive health rights based on Ohio’s reproductive health constitutional amendment: “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception; fertility treatment; continuing one’s own pregnancy; miscarriage care; and abortion.”
- Remove criminal charges and civil penalties related to abortion procedures so that medical practitioners may confidently provide these services.
- Pass Medicaid expansion to improve the health of low-income Texans and working families.
- Ensure appropriate funding for children’s health insurance programs and community health programs.
- Assist rural hospitals and communities with funding needs to improve facilities.
- Recruit, train, and retain medical professionals and allied health professionals.
- Support the universal rights of all Texans. Allow every individual to express their unique form of humanity.
- Prohibit the Texas government from interfering with parents’ medical decisions related to their children.
- Support federal efforts to increase border patrol and migrant processing staff.
- Provide additional funding for local law enforcement entities and municipalities.
- Enhance community safety and facilitate cooperation with the federal government to ensure a secure and humane border policy.
- Protect the flow of goods and commerce at our ports of entry.
- Set limits on campaign contributions for Texas politicians.
- Set term limits for Texas elected representatives to 12 years in office.
- Propose a constitutional amendment to allow citizens to initiate ballot measures.
- Raise the pay for elected House and Senate officials from $7,200 to $70,000 annually, enabling any citizen to run.
- Allow the legislature to meet yearly instead of every other year.
- Encourage the use of Rank-Choice Voting to elect nonpartisan political positions (e.g., School Boards, City Councils, and Mayors).
- Expand vote-by-mail options to make voting more convenient for all Texans.
- Modernize our voter registration system to allow for online and same-day voter registration to increase participation in all elections.
- Pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting fiscally excessive budget surpluses.
- Require the Texas government to allocate surpluses to government services or return them to taxpayers.
- Retain an appropriate rainy-day fund.
- Pay off the billions in utility bonds issued to pay for the 2021 winter storm, allowing Texans to avoid 30 years of interest charges.
- Limit privatization of public services.
- Pass Property Tax Reform so that high-value homes pay a more significant percentage of property taxes versus low-value homes.
- Pass Sales Tax Reform to provide relief for working families and simplify payment for small businesses.
- Pass Tollway Relief Reform to provide relief for working families and better accountability for tollway authorities.
- Continue to recruit diverse industries to our communities, attracting a talented workforce.
- Improve workers’ rights by enhancing unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance.
- Raise the minimum wage in a viable manner.
- Support collective bargaining.
- Support all public servants, including firefighters, police, military, veterans, educators, health care workers, parks and recreation, fish and wildlife, and many more.
- Connect the ERCOT power grid to the national grid to allow Texas to buy and sell electricity as needed and cost-effectively buffering the impact of winter storms and summer heat waves.
- Invest in technologies to improve responsible extraction of oil and gas.
- Invest in renewable solar and wind energy.
- Invest in electric automobiles, trucks, and charging networks.
- Invest in high-speed trains connecting Texas’ major and minor cities.
- Invest in decarbonization technologies and help create a new industry.
- Invest in technologies to reduce the environmental impact of carbon-based fuels.
- Increase funding for the Texas Juvenile Criminal Justice System to provide adequate staffing and rehabilitative opportunities.
- Decriminalize marijuana for responsible use by adults aged 21 or older. Create a business and taxing model for dispensaries.
- Improve funding assistance through grants to local municipalities and counties for upgrading and modernizing police training, equipment, and 911 Emergency Response Communications.
- Partner with responsible gun owners to advocate for common sense safety laws.
- Develop incentives for secure storage of firearms in homes and automobiles.
- Increase the minimum age to 21 to purchase battlefield weapons.
- Create an Extreme Risk or Red Flag law to protect individuals and our communities.
- Improve regulatory practices to protect our natural lands, wildlife, and watersheds.
- Encourage responsible and sustainable land use in partnership with municipalities.
- Increase funding for State Land preservation and Texas State Park improvements.
- Enhance the use of public lands for recreational hunting and fishing.
