Sara Hernandez

Sara Hernandez earned a bachelor's degree from Duke University in 2005, a graduate degree from Loyola Marymount University in 2007, and a law degree from Loyola Law School in 2011.[1]

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a community college instructor, former LAUSD teacher, non-profit leader, attorney and mother.

I started my career as a public school teacher. As a teacher, I founded a non-profit that identifies low-income students and provides them with exceptional educational opportunity and resources throughout their high school years to get them “to and through college”.

After teaching, I earned a law degree and worked at Los Angeles City Hall, where I worked on issues of housing, homelessness, transportation, infrastructure and green space.

Currently I am a land use and environmental attorney, as well as a community college instructor teaching Constitutional Law at Valley College. As an attorney I works on some of the most pressing environmental, land use and housing issues in the region. I also do extensive pro-bono work representing indigent immigrants in asylum proceedings due to the devastating violence in the Northern Triangle and government oppression in Nicaragua.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

1 in 5 LACCD students are homeless and over half are housing insecure. Homelessness is the most urgent crisis this City is facing and we must address it at the Community College level as well.High-quality free college options are essential to an equitable society. The LA College Promise, which offers two free years of community college is a good start but we also need to provide more wraparound services to ensure students succeedWe need to meet students where they are by utilizing both cutting edge technology as well as personal step-by-step guidance to up the District's enrollment, completion and transfer numbers.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

As a community college instructor, former middle school teacher, non-profit founder, attorney, active community member, and mother, I am passionate about contributing to the larger conversation on education. However, there are two specific issues within my overall platform that I care deeply about and are personal to me that have inspired me to run for the LA Community College Board:

1.

1 in 8 LACCD students are homeless and over half are housing insecure. Homelessness is the most urgent crisis this City is facing and we must address it from every angle. It’s an issue I care deeply about and an area in which I have experience both as an educator and policy maker. I am running to tackle this issue at the community college level.

2.

I believe that high-quality free college options are essential to an equitable society. The Los Angeles College Promise, which offers two free years of community college is a good start but as an educator I know we need to do more, and provide more wrap around services, to ensure that students succeed.

The following issues were listed on Hernandez's campaign website. For a full list of campaign themes, click here.

Income Inequality: Los Angeles is a city of tremendous wealth and tremendous poverty. Wealth has been concentrated in the hands of the few, while many hard-working members of our community struggle to pay for basic necessities for their families. I believe that no one who works 40 hours a week should be forgoing food to pay their rent or making the impossible choices that those living in poverty face. That’s why I’ve worked my entire career to level the economic playing field and redistribute opportunities and resources from the privileged to the most vulnerable.

Health Care: ​Health care is a basic human right. I believe the best way to ensure this right for all Americans is to create a single-payer universal health care system. The Affordable Care Act was a critical step towards the goal of universal health care and I am determined to move forward, not backward, in ensuring that every American has affordable, quality, health care coverage. I support the reintroduction of The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676. I will fight to preserve health care for the 20 million Americans who gained coverage under the ACA and Medicaid expansion. I will fight to preserve comprehensive coverage that covers mental health services and addiction treatment for our most vulnerable populations and prenatal and maternity care for women. I will fight to protect Planned Parenthood and to abolish the Hyde Amendment.

Protecting Social Security and Medicare: ​Social Security and Medicare are part of a fundamental social contract committing that every American should be able to live with dignity as he or she grows into old age. We need to strengthen, not privatize or diminish Social Security and Medicare. I support eliminating the cap on taxable earnings for the Social Security payroll tax. Eliminating this cap would reduce the long-term Social Security shortfall by 71% and expand the social safety net for America’s senior citizens.

Education: Education can and should be a pathway out of poverty and the realization of every child’s unique potential. Yet for too many children, this goal is far from their reality. Every child deserves an excellent education at their neighborhood public school. In order to achieve this, I will defend public education from attacks from the Trump administration and for-profit forces. As a former LAUSD middle school teacher, I am adamantly against vouchers and for-profit charter schools that take money out of our public school system and turn education into a for-profit business. I will fight to protect Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that provides resources and opportunities to those who need it the most: low-income students and students with special needs.

Public Transportation: I believe that public transportation is a civil right. Access to efficient and safe public transportation provides mobility to those that need it the most and is a path to economic opportunity and upward social mobility. A robust public transportation system allows for the free movement of all people from different backgrounds. It promotes the exchange of ideas, culture, commerce, exploration and learning. Working in City Hall, I helped usher in major public transportation projects such as Metro’s Regional Connector. I worked to expand our bicycle infrastructure around the 34th district and to create more walkable, pedestrian-oriented, public transit-oriented streets.[8]

—Sara Hernandez's campaign website