On Tuesday, Monica Garcia was chosen by her colleagues to replace Dr. Ref Rodriguez as the president of the Los Angeles Board of Education. Garcia is the longest serving current board member, and she has previously led the board from July 2007 to June 2013. La Comadre is excited to have the leadership of the largest school district of Latino students in the country return to a Latina.
Rodriguez was the president of the board for the past two months, but he resigned his position after being charged with campaign finance violations. He remains on the board.
Garcia has been a supporter of public school choice to give families more options to select quality schools for their students, and she has been an advocate for charter schools when the traditional schools have failed to produce results. In addition, she has focused on increasing the graduation rates for LAUSD students and promoting college and career readiness for all of the district’s graduates.
Kelly Gonez, a fellow board member, said this on Tuesday after Garcia was selected as president, “Board President Garcia has the experience to lead our Board and run our meetings efficiently. Our students and families cannot afford for us to lose momentum. We will continue to work to ensure every LAUSD student receives a high-quality public education.”
Ultimately, that should be the goal of all of the board members — to work to ensure that the students receive a high quality public education.
To learn more about Monica Garcia and her work on the LAUSD Board, please check out this blog on La Comadre, “Two Ears and One Loud Voice for Change: Monica Garcia’s Decade of Fighting for Justice at LAUSD.”
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