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Education

In order to ensure and maintain a competitive edge nationally and globally, all students in Santa Clara County must have access to free, world-class public education. Further, a balanced curriculum that includes opportunities to study science, technology, engineering, math, music, and the arts is essential to developing a well-rounded and inquisitive civically-engaged workforce prepared for the challenges of an increasingly globally-interconnected world. Therefore, the Santa Clara County Democratic Party:

Administration & Teaching

  • Strongly supports democratically elected, representative school boards that serve to provide direct oversight of the educational institutions in our county.
  • Encourages municipalities to consider the impact of development on school districts as well as the impact on the quality of life in surrounding communities when planning, including the potential for joint use agreements with neighborhoods for facilities.
  • Supports the use of school district owned to provide affordable teacher housing.

Curriculum

  • Supports increased funding for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics programs (STEAM), vocational and trade schools, and assistance in degree completion programs. 
  • Supports the full implementation of the FAIR Act and the inclusion of LGBTQ issues, history, and people in curriculum.
  • Supports the inclusion of inclusive ethnic studies courses and content in curriculum at all levels of education.

Access & Affordability

  • Recognizes that closing the achievement gap between white and non-white students is essential, and believes that this can only be achieved by adequately funding programs designed for and tailored to the needs of struggling students.
  • Supports expanded access to affordable preschool and transitional kindergarten for all students, and making early childhood education free to those of low or moderate means.
  • Supports increased funding, staffing, and oversight of special education and services for students with disabilities, migrant youth, English language learners, and foster youth, and programs for students with children.
  • Believes that undocumented persons and their children should have access to the same quality educational opportunity as any other Californian, and strongly supports efforts to expand services and financial assistance to undocumented families.

Student Health & Safety

  • Believed that the police do not belong on campus and recognizes that the over-policing of schools has resulted in the criminalization of discipline, which disproportionately punishes students of color and exacerbates the school-to-prison pipeline.
  • Discourages suspension, expulsion, and other disciplinary policies that result in missed learning time and disproportionately affect students who need the most help and are at the greatest risk of dropping out.
  • Supports programs to provide mental health services in elementary and secondary schools. 

Higher Education

  • Strongly supports policies designed to make higher education more affordable and accessible to all students regardless of their or their parents’ income, including efforts to control higher education costs, expansion of scholarship and grant programs, and free community college.
  • Supports the elimination of college student debt.
  • Strongly supports the First Amendment right of students and faculty to protest, and the right of the administration to bar off-campus provocateurs from campus who intend to incite acts of violence on campus.