
The demands of the common good… are strictly connected to respect for and the integral promotion of the person and his fundamental rights. These demands concern above all the commitment to peace, the organization of the State’s powers, a sound juridical system, the protection of the environment, and the provision of essential services to all, some of which are at the same time human rights: food, housing, work, education and access to culture, transportation… -166, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
The “common good” means the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily… These demands concern above all the commitment to peace, the organization of the State’s powers, a sound juridical system, the protection of the environment, and the provision of essential services to all, some of which are at the same time human rights: food, housing, work, education and access to culture, transportation, basic health care, the freedom of communication and expression, and the protection of religious freedom. Nor must one forget the contribution that every nation is required in duty to make towards a true worldwide cooperation for the common good of the whole of humanity and for future generations also. -164-166, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
The common good consists of three essential elements: respect for and promotion of the fundamental rights of the person; prosperity, or the development of the spiritual and temporal goods of society; the peace and security of the group and of its members. -1925, Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Role & Development of the Family
“Honour your father and mother.”
– the 4th Commandment
The family is the primary unit in society. It is where education begins and the Word of God is first nurtured. The priority of the family over society and the State must be affirmed. – 209-214, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
The Church teaches that the proper role of government and other human institutions is to foster human life and dignity by maintaining social conditions that enable and encourage us to serve God in one another, and thereby to promote that which is truly in the common interest. This begins with nurturing and enabling families, as well as supporting the elderly and other marginalized members of society.
Health Care
Among the causes that greatly contribute to underdevelopment and poverty, mention must be made of illiteracy, lack of food security, the absence of structures and services, inadequate measures for guaranteeing basic healthcare, and the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation. -166, 447 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into the needs of others and the common good. Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance. – 2288 Catechism of the Catholic Church
Support for the Elderly
If the elderly are in situations where they experience suffering and dependence, not only do they need health care services and appropriate assistance, but and above all they need to be treated with love. – 222, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
Education
“May Nazareth remind us what the family is, what the communion of love is,
its stark and simple beauty, its sacred and inviolable character; may it help us to see how sweet
and irreplaceable education in the family is; may it teach us its natural function
in the social order. May we finally learn the lesson of work.”
– 210 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, citing St Paul VI, Address at Nazareth (5 January 1964)
Maintaining employment depends more and more on one’s professional capabilities. Instructional and educational systems must not neglect human or technological formation, which are necessary for gainfully fulfilling one’s responsibilities.
Young people should be taught to act upon their own initiative, to accept the responsibility of facing with adequate competencies the risks connected with a fluid economic context that is often unpredictable in the way it evolves. – 289, 290 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
“May Nazareth remind us what the family is, what the communion of love is, its stark and simple beauty, its sacred and inviolable character; may it help us to see how sweet
and irreplaceable education in the family is; may it teach us its natural function in the social order. May we finally learn the lesson of work.” – 210 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, citing St Paul VI, Address at Nazareth (5 January 1964)
Maintaining employment depends more and more on one’s professional capabilities. Instructional and educational systems must not neglect human or technological formation, which are necessary for gainfully fulfilling one’s responsibilities.
Young people should be taught to act upon their own initiative, to accept the responsibility of facing with adequate competencies the risks connected with a fluid economic context that is often unpredictable in the way it evolves. – 289, 290 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
“[T]here is a growing loss of the sense of history… A kind of “deconstructionism”, whereby human freedom claims to create everything starting from zero, is making headway in today’s culture. The one thing it leaves in its wake is the drive to limitless consumption and expressions of empty individualism. Concern about this led me to offer the young some advice. “If someone tells young people to ignore their history, to reject the experiences of their elders, to look down on the past and to look forward to a future that he himself holds out, doesn’t it then become easy to draw them along so that they only do what he tells them? He needs the young to be shallow, uprooted and distrustful, so that they can trust only in his promises and act according to his plans. That is how various ideologies operate: they destroy (or deconstruct) all differences so that they can reign unopposed. To do so, however, they need young people who have no use for history, who spurn the spiritual and human riches inherited from past generations, and are ignorant of everything that came before them”.
Pope Francis, Fratelli tutti, 13
Culture, Arts & Tourism
Faced with rapid technological and economic progress, and with the equally rapid transformation of the processes of production and consumption, a great deal of educational and cultural work is urgently needed. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 376, 401
Certain economically prosperous countries tend to be proposed as cultural models for less developed countries; instead, each of those countries should be helped to grow in its own distinct way and to develop its capacity for innovation while respecting the values of its proper culture. A shallow and pathetic desire to imitate others leads to copying and consuming in place of creating, and fosters low national self-esteem.
We forget that “there is no worse form of alienation than to feel uprooted, belonging to no one. A land will be fruitful, and its people bear fruit and give birth to the future, only to the extent that it can foster a sense of belonging among its members, create bonds of integration between generations and different communities, and avoid all that makes us insensitive to others and leads to further alienation.” – Fratelli tutti, –51-53

Role and development of the family
The party has published no official statement concerning its position on the role of the family.
Child Care
The party states that it believes in universal early childhood education and affordable, high-quality child care
The party advocates:
– implementing paid sick days and comprehensive paid family and medical leave for all workers
– major investment in quality, affordable child care, increase Child & Dependent tax credit
– increasing funding for federal food assistance programs, to alleviate child hunger
Health Care
The party believes that health care is a human right, and undertakes to continue to seek universal health care, reduced premiums and prescription prices, with control of overall costs and elimination of systemic discrimination.
COVID Pandemic
The party advocates:
– free COVID testing for everyone
– free vaccines for everyone when ready, including non-residents
– expanded funding for state and local hiring of staff for contract tracing
– federal payment of 100% of COBRA costs for those at risk of job loss
– reopening of Affordable Care Act markets and coverage levels
– prohibiting disabilities-related care for COVID patients with disabilities
– early preparation for future pandemics
General Health Care
The party advocates:
– increased funding for research into how the social determinants of health contribute to differences in health outcomes
– a sustained, government-wide effort to eliminate racial, social, ethnic, gender and geographic gaps in insurance rates, access to quality care, and health outcomes
– expanding Medicaid to enroll low-income people in a high-quality public option without premiums, and to include dental, vision, and hearing coverage
– strengthening of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and VA systems
– ensuring that health care is available to all at no more than 8.5% of their income
– doubled investments in community and rural health centers, and expanded mobile health units
– investing to build capacity of Medicaid to eliminate waiting lists for home and community-based care
– elimination of requirement for patients to hold low-paying jobs in order to qualify for Medicaid
– in order to save mothers’ lives, expanding postpartum Medicaid coverage to one year after birth, promote maternal health in rural areas and increase diversity of perinatal workforce, implement bias training for health professionals
– increasing medical price transparency, reducing paperwork, implementing uniform billing practices
– pursuing anti-trust action to stop health care mega-mergers
– providing direct, increased supports to states for adult Medicaid enrollment and increase federal percentage of bill coverage
– increased funding for CDC and state and local health departments
– creating a tax credit for unpaid informal and family caregivers
– improving standards for nursing homes and staff
– continued commitment to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic
– a minimum wage of $15/hr for health care workers whose employment is funded by taxpayer dollars
Support for the Elderly
The party advocates:
– reforming social security by increasing benefits for all and protecting surviving spouses
– rejecting efforts to privatize or weaken social security, including raising retirement age or cuts to cost-of-living increases
– addressing social security rights for unpaid caregivers
Education & Young Workers
The party believes that education is a critical public good—not a commodity—and that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that every child, everywhere, is able to receive a world-class education that enables them to lead meaningful lives.
The party advocates:
– improving early childhood education
– increased funding to states to guarantee that low- and middle-income families can afford child care
– increased professional requirements for and training of early childhood educators
K-12
The party advocates:
– to reduce inequitable funding of public schools, tripling of Title 1 funding for low-income students
– expansion of free lunch programs, health care and nutrition service
– expansion of adult education classes
– expanded vocational and arts magnet schools
– banning federal funding for for-profit private schools
– ending private school vouchers
– working to end violence in schools
– reform of school and student performance testing
Higher Education
The party believes that everyone should be able to earn a degree beyond high school, without money standing in the way.
The party advocates:
– tuition-free public colleges and universities for family earning less than $125,000 (about 80% of Americans)
– tuition free community colleges and trade schools for all students, including Dreamers
– increased federal support for on-campus child care
– mobilizing a diverse new generation of young workers through a corps and cohort challenged to conserve our public lands
– as a part of the COVID recovery process, forgiving up to $10,000 per student on federal student loans, forgiveness of interest and debt for others, without tax consequences
Culture, Arts & Tourism
The party believes that the arts are essential to our free and democratic society.
The party advocates:
– support for non-profit cultural organizations, artists, scholars, and state and local support for participation in the arts.

Role of the Family
The party advocates:
– social policies focused on protecting families
– programs that ensure that children, as vulnerable members of society, receive basic nutritional, educational, and medical necessities
– support for and expansion of Head Start and Pre- and neo-natal programs
– a universal, federally funded childcare program for pre-school and young schoolchildren
– family assistance such as the earned income tax credit, for working poor families in which the parent supports and lives with the children, to offset regressive payroll taxes and growing inequalities in American society
– no privatization of social security, so that the program remains under the aegis of the Federal Government, attempts to expand its effectiveness
– work of non-profit public interest groups and those individuals breaking out of “careerism” to pursue non-traditional careers in public service.
Health Care & Elder Care
The party states that:
– it supports single-payer universal health care and preventive care for all, and believes that health care is a right, not a privilege
– the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world without a national health care system
– under a universal, comprehensive, national single-payer health care system, the administrative waste of private insurance corporations would be redirected to patient care, and would be more than enough to offset the cost of additional care. Expenses for businesses currently providing coverage would be reduced, while state and local governments would pay less because they would receive reimbursement for services provided to the previously uninsured
– it supports a wide range of health care services, including conventional medicine, as well as the teaching, funding and practice of complementary, integrative and licensed alternative health care approaches
– to improve national health, we must improve the quality of our air, water and food and the health of our workplaces, homes and schools
– it unequivocally supports a woman’s right to reproductive choice, no matter her marital status or age, and that contraception and safe, legal abortion procedures be available on demand and be included in all health insurance coverage in the U.S., as well as free of charge in any state where a woman’s income falls below the poverty level
– the failure of governments to invest in research for a cure for HIV/AIDS is because mainstream society has the belief that contracting HIV is self-inflicted by “sinful” or “illegal” behavior
– the largest groups with HIV/AIDS in the USA are men who have sex with men, including gay, bisexual, and trans men, and men of color, particularly of African and Latinx descent. Persons who share needles are the next largest group of persons with HIV/AIDS in the USA
The party advocates:
– a publicly funded health care insurance program, administered at the state and local levels, with comprehensive lifetime benefits, including dental, vision, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, medication coverage, and hospice and long-term care
– participation of all licensed and/or certified health providers, subject to standards of practice in their field, with the freedom of patients to choose the type of health care provider from a wide range of health care choices, and with decision-making in the hands of patients and their health providers
– portability of coverage regardless of geographical location or employment
– cost controls via streamlined administration, national fee schedules, bulk purchases of drugs and medical equipment, coordination of capital expenditures and publicly negotiated prices of medications
– primary and preventive care as priorities, including wellness education about diet, nutrition and exercise; holistic health; and medical marijuana
– more comprehensive services for those who have special needs, including the mentally ill, the differently abled and those who are terminally ill
– hospitals that can afford safe and adequate staffing levels of registered nurses
– establishment of national, state, and local health policy boards consisting of health consumers and providers to oversee and evaluate the performance of the system, ensure access to care, and help determine research priorities
– comprehensive, humane, and competent care of all people with HIV/AIDS
– increased public education in the prevention of transmission of HIV/AIDS which includes funding for the purchase and distribution of condoms, gloves, dams, and needles & syringes
– increased funding for age appropriate comprehensive sex education that includes use of barriers for prevention of fluid/blood transmission
– easy access for students to condoms, gloves, and dams in schools
– funding for methods of peer education for sex workers and those who may share needles, and to supply them with condoms, dams, gloves, and needles & syringes
– educating incarcerated individuals in HIV transmission prevention and supplying them with condoms, dams, and gloves
– creation of daily HIV medication distribution centers for individuals who are unable to manage the complex daily medication regimen without assistance
– free, anonymous testing of people for the presence of HIV/AIDS; and elimination of mandated testing
– best governmental efforts to negotiate fair and reasonable prices for associated drugs, rather than allowing manufacturers to extract excessive profits from these life-saving medications
– funding for outreach and treatment to address the particular circumstances and specific needs of the various communities affected by HIV/AIDS
– better condoms
– research for HIV/AIDs vaccine research as well as research on prevention methods such as microbicides
– provision to people of means and support to protect themselves from all sexually transmitted and blood & body fluid borne diseases
– repeal of all HIV criminalization laws and policies and release all prisoners imprisoned solely due to HIV status
Education & Young Workers
K-12 Education
The party states that:
– a great challenge facing the people of the United States is to educate ourselves to build a just, sustainable, humane and democratic future, and to become responsible and effective citizens of the local and global communities we share
– every child deserves a public education that fosters critical and holistic thought, and provides the breadth and depth of learning necessary to become an active citizen and a constructive member of our society
– our public school system, as it presently operates, helps us reach that goal
– for the first time in this country’s history, students of color represent the majority of the PK-12 public education student body
– additionally, now more than half of all school children are classified as “low income”
– nearly 35 percent of all public school students have some specific learning disability and are receiving special education services
– in view of the foregoing, in order for America’s schools to truly become effective in teaching our students to think critically and to respond to life challenges, districts, schools and teachers must develop a new consciousness toward students that includes cultural competency, the understanding of the impact of poverty on school performance, asset-based engagement and how to create stable, nurturing school environments that will help students thrive and succeed
– opposing the dissolution of public schools and the privatization of education
– the best educational experience is guaranteed by the democratic empowerment of organized students, their parents and communities along with organized teachers
– students should be challenged with great works of literature, economics, philosophy, history, music, and the arts as regular academic subjects
– we must end disinvestment in education and instead put it at the top of our social and economic agenda. Effective schools have sufficient resources. Too many of our teachers are overworked, underpaid, and starved of key materials
– it does not believe that schools should turn our children into servile students, employees, consumers or citizens
The party advocates:
– equal access to high-quality education, and sharp increases in financial aid for college students
– dismantling white supremacy in our schools, represented in curricula, discipline, teacher recruitment and more, by seeking to end the school-to-jailhouse track – – freeing teachers from requirements to use exclusively Common Core Standards-aligned materials, which neglect the contributions and struggles of people of color
– allowing teachers to choose whichever materials are academically-challenging and culturally appropriate for their students, and strengthening cultural competency requirements for teachers
– providing robust professional development in cultural competency, and widen the scope of teacher preparation to include cultural competency training
– ending alternative teacher licensing initiatives such as Teach for America which recruit primarily white teachers and inject them into urban classrooms with as little as five weeks’ training and only a two-year commitment, creating great destabilization in school communities that need consistent leadership and community connections
– incentivize “grow your own teacher” programs in oppressed communities with targeted recruitment during high school, federal grants and loan forgiveness and mentoring
– invest more resources into recruiting fully bilingual school support staff, such as front-office and family resource personnel and counselors
– eliminating police officers from our schools, and ensuring that school security personnel are trained for, and held accountable to, conflict resolution techniques and anti-bias training
– ensuring that security personnel demonstrate cultural competency and refrain from enforcing white supremacist oppressive tactics
– recognize the impact of poverty on student achievement, which no amount of sanctions, standards, turnarounds, teacher targeting or privatization will fix
– ending inequitable school funding and use of schemes like “student-based budgeting,” behavior policies based on “no excuses,” “character education” and “grit,” and school closures
– ending regimes of high-stakes standardized testing and the wholesale diversion of resources away from public schools are provoking crises for which the bipartisan corporate consensus recommends school closings, dissolution of entire school districts and replacement by unaccountable, profit-based charter schools
– recognizing and upholding parents’ right to opt their children out of any standardized test, and ending official bullying and threats from school and district officials when parents opt out
– ending all federal competitive grants like Race to the Top (RTTT) and instead equitably fund schools based on a priority of socioeconomic level
– elimination of gross inequalities in school funding, and focusing federal education policy on providing equal access to a quality education
K-12 Curriculum
The party states that values start with parents and schools should not seek to de-program students from those values
The party advocates:
– providing age-appropriate education on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and safer sex
– prohibiting commercial advertising to children in schools
– providing healthy school meals that are rich in vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber, and offer plant-based vegetarian options and providing opportunities for parents to assist in meal preparation. m. Ban the sale of soda pop and junk food in schools
– including a vigorous and engrossing civics curriculum in later elementary and secondary schools, to teach students to be active citizens
– encouraging parental responsibility by supporting parenting in culturally-sensitive ways and increasing opportunities for parents to be as involved as possible in their children’s education
– recognizing the viable alternative of home-based education and support working-class parents who wish to offer it to their children
– opposing efforts to restrict the teaching of scientific information and the portrayal of religious belief as fact
– decreasing the student-teacher ratio in classrooms and increase the number of counselors, nurses, librarians and social workers
– including self-defense skills in the physical education curriculum at elementary school level
– providing researched-based drug, tobacco, and alcohol abuse prevention, as well as evidence-based information about the true effect of recreational or medicinal substances such as cannabis on the developing brain
– teaching all students about white supremacy and intersectionality
– ending the militarization of our schools. JROTC programs are an expensive drain on our limited educational resources and a diversion from their important mission to prepare our young to assume their role in a peaceful tomorrow
– ending the use of ASVAB testing to mine public school student bodies for data to support military recruiting
– forbidding military access to student records
Post-secondary education
The party advocates:
– providing free college tuition to all qualified students at public universities and vocational schools
– abolishing all student and parent loans taken out to finance post-secondary and vocational education
– opposing military and corporate control over the priorities and topics of university academic research
– expanded opportunities for universal higher education and life-long learning
Young People
The party states that:
– all human beings have the right to a life that will let them achieve their full potential
– young people are one of the least protected classes of human beings, yet they represent our future. We must ensure they have an upbringing that allows them to take their place as functioning, productive, and self-actualized members of their community
– youth are not the property of their parents or guardians, but are under their care and guidance
– youth have the right to survive by being provided adequate food, shelter and comprehensive health care, including prenatal care for mothers
– youth have the right to be protected from abuse, harmful drugs, violence, environmental hazards, neglect, and exploitation
– youth have the right to develop in a safe and nurturing early environment provided by affordable childcare and pre-school preparation
– youth have the right to an education that is stimulating, relevant, engaging, and that fosters their natural desire to learn
– young people’s creative potential should be encouraged to the greatest extent possible
– young people should have input into the direction and pace of their own education, including input into the operation of their educational institutions
– young people should be provided with education regarding their own and others’ sexuality at the earliest appropriate time
– young people should be provided the opportunity to express themselves in their own media, including television, radio, films and the Interne
– young people should also be given skills in analyzing commercial media
– young people should be kept free from coercive advertising at their educational institutions.
The party advocates:
– to create new opportunities for citizens to serve their communities through non-military community service and challenge young people while encouraging social responsibility by providing them with land and resource management skills, formation of a Civilian Conservation Corps, with national leadership and state and local affiliates, to spearhead efforts to work on the tasks of environmental education, restoration of damaged habitats, reforestation, and cleaning up polluted waterways
Culture, Arts & Tourism
The party states that:
– freedom of artistic expression is a fundamental right and a key element in empowering communities, and in moving us toward sustainability and respect for diversity
– artists can create in ways that foster healthy, non-alienating relationships between people and their daily environments, communities, and the Earth. This can include both artists whose themes advocate compassion, nurturance, or cooperation; and artists whose creations unmask the often-obscure connections between various forms of violence, domination, and oppression, or effectively criticize aspects of the very community that supports their artistic activity
– the arts can only perform their social function if they are completely free from outside control
The party advocates:
– alternative, community-based systems treating neither the artwork nor the artist as a commodity
– elimination of all laws that seek to restrict or censor artistic expression, including the withholding of government funds for political or moral content
– increased funding for the arts appropriate to their essential social role at local, state and federal levels of government
– community-funded programs employing local artists to enrich their communities through public art programs, including public performances, exhibitions, murals on public buildings, design or re-design of parks and public areas, storytelling and poetry reading, and publication
– the establishment of non-profit public forums for local artists to display their talents and creations
– research, public dialogue, and trial experiments to develop alternative systems for the valuation and exchange of artworks and for the financial support of artists
– funding sources not connected with social injustice or environmental destruction
– education programs in the community that will energize the creativity of every community member from the youngest to the oldest, including neglected groups such as teenagers, senior citizens, prisoners, immigrants, and drug addicts. Such programs would provide materials and access to interested, qualified arts educators for every member of the community who demonstrates an interes
– funding and staffing to incorporate arts education into every school curriculum
– integration of the arts and artistic teaching methods into other areas of the curriculum to promote a holistic perspective

Role and development of the family
The party states that:
– parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise their children according to their own standards and beliefs, provided that the rights of children to be free from abuse and neglect are also protected
Education
The party states that:
– education is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality, accountability, and efficiency with more diversity of choice
– recognizing that the education of children is a parental responsibility, it would restore authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government
– parents should have control of and responsibility for all funds expended for their children’s education
Health Care
The party states that:
– it favors a free market health care system. It recognizes the freedom of individuals to determine the level of health insurance they want (if any), the level of health care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care, including end-of-life decisions
– people should be free to purchase health insurance across state lines

Role and development of the family
The party believes that the family is the foundation of civil society, and that the cornerstone of the family is natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman. Its daily lessons – cooperation, patience, mutual respect, responsibility, self-reliance – are fundamental to the order and progress of our Republic.
The party:
– condemns Supreme Court rulings that overturned the millennias-old foundation of marriage and family as the union of one man and one woman
– opposes government discrimination against entities that decline to sell items or services to individuals for activities that go against their religious views
– supports measures to ensure that private adoption agencies are not discriminated against based on their views on family and marriage
– advocates repeal of tax code and public assistance policies which penalize marriage and families
Health Care
COVID Pandemic
The party has published no official statement concerning its position on pandemic recovery.
General Health Care
The party advocates:
– repealing the Affordable Care Act of 2010, and returning to privatized health care services
– returning control of health care insurance programs to the states
– capping malpractice liability for non-economic damages
Medicare
The party advocates:
– modernizing Medicare and making it more cost efficient by giving participants younger than 55 the option of traditional Medicare or a premium-support model with stronger patient choices, promoting competition among providers
– guaranteeing to enroll each Medicare participant with an income-adjusted contribution toward a plan of their choice
– for new enrollees, setting a more realistic age for eligibility, in view of today’s longer life span
Medicaid
The party advocates:
– premium supports for purchasing insurance, refundable tax credits, alternatives to hospitalization for chronic patients, disease prevention activities, and other innovations
– use of block grants to allow states to experiment with different models, in order to improve strategies that can be shared with other states
– respect for states’ authority to exclude abortion from Medicaid and other health care programs
Support for the Elderly
The party advocates:
– priority in public policy for promoting home care programs to allow the elderly to age at home
– programs to protect against elder abuse
Education & Young Workers
The party believes that education is much more than schooling. It is the whole range of activities by which families and communities transmit to a younger generation, not just knowledge and skills, but ethical and behavioral norms and traditions. It is the handing over of a cultural identity.
The party advocates:
– curtailing the influence of centralizing forces from outside the family and community
– parental control over educational choices for children, including a constitutional amendment to stop interference by governments at any level
– allowing federal Title I funding for low-income or special-needs students to follow children to any schools the parents choose
– choice for parents in the educational philosophies and content, including home-schooling, career and vocational training, online learnings and early-college high schools
– protections for teachers from frivolous lawsuits, and reasonable authority for teachers to discipline children
– encouragement of state legislatures to offer Bible as an elective literature curriculum in high schools
– greater accountability among educators, and for the Department of Education, to establish that expenditures are linked to improved educational performance
– promotion of technology as a key element in education
– promotion of history and civics, based on the original documents of the founding fathers
– replacing federal funding of student loans with private funding
– decoupling of accreditation and federal funding, to allow a greater variety in higher education
Culture, Arts & Tourism
The party believes that American culture and free enterprise should be brought to all parts of the world.

Points to Ponder: Family, Community & the Common Good
Consider discussing the following questions with your local candidates, elected officials, and the parties, and with your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and fellow parishioners:
Families & Child Well-Being
– When, if ever, is it appropriate for governments to place limits on the right of parents to make decisions pertaining to the care or education of their children?
– To what extent is child poverty a problem in the United States? To the extent that it is a problem, what, should be done about it, and by whom? By federal or state governments, by individuals, or by private, non-profit, or community organizations, including the Church and lay Catholic organizations?
– Some political parties have suggested that full participation by all eligible work force members, including both parents of two-parent couples and single parents, is critical in order to maximize return from the national economy, so that economic well-being can be optimized, and that in order to maximize those returns and ensure full economic participation, it is critical to ensure that affordable child care is accessible by all families. Which is more important for children, a stable and dignified home with two loving parents, or maximized national economic returns?
Health Care
– What can or should be done, by federal or state governments or by private, non-profit, or community organizations, including the Church and lay Catholic organizations, to ensure that quality health care is available in timely, humane, and cost-efficient manner to all who need it?
– With respect to Medicaid and other forms of publicly-supported health care, does there exist any obligation for an individual to take reasonable measures to avoid health issues (e.g., wearing a mask in a pandemic, when recommended by public health authorities), so as to avoid becoming a publicly-funded health care burden when preventable illness or injury occurs? If so, what can or should be done to encourage such measures?
Care for the Elderly
– Some parties are calling for increased space in publicly-funded facilities for the elderly and long-term care patients. Should any other solutions, such as nurturing a culture of life-long intergenerational family cohesiveness and support, including home caregivers, be considered also, in addition or as alternatives to long-term residential care?
– Who should be responsible for long-term support for the elderly? Themselves? Their families? The federal or state governments? Charitable institutions? Some combination of these? To what extent?
Education
– It has been suggested that too many Americans fail to understand democratic principles, such as the responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments, and the proper roles of non-governmental institutions such as charities, schools, businesses, news media, and moral and religious organizations. What, if anything, can or should the federal government do in order to promote a more comprehensive understanding of civics in the United States?