Alan,
Our public schools need your support. With the most unqualified Secretary of Education in our country's history pushing for-profit charter schools, local school board members are more important to our children than ever before. Steve Zimmer, Imelda Padilla, Rita Moore, Lori Kirkpatrick, and Valdez Bravo are running to strengthen public schools, and with their records of community activism, advocacy, and a robust, student-centric platform, we are proud to endorse them.
Steve Zimmer is President of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education and represents District 4. He co-founded the Elysian Valley United Community Service Center, LAUSD Student Recovery Day, and a partnership with the Youth Policy Institute's FamilySource Center. Steve helped secure an $18 million dollar increase for the arts, and passed a Good Food Purchasing resolution for school meals while advocating for immigration reform, the DREAM Act, and establishing schools as safe zones for families facing deportation. Steve's public school reforms lift everyone up.
Imelda Padilla serves on the Los Angeles County Commission for Women and Girls and is running for the Los Angeles School Board's District 6 seat. Imelda's experience with the environmental justice group Pacoima Beautiful, organizing to raise the minimum wage with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and founding the nonprofit Together We Do More to serve middle and high school students in the North East San Fernando Valley with higher education and professional development opportunities have all helped prepare her for the Board of Education.
Rita Moore is running to represent Zone 4 on the Portland Public School (PPS) Board. As a PPS and Parent Teacher Association organizing committee member, Rita is deeply involved to ensure that students like her child receive the good education that was her ticket out of poverty to a Ph.D degree. Her commitment to ending district-wide inequities in education is complemented by 15 years of involvement with PPS, experience that will help the School Board serve families like hers.
Lori Kirkpatrick is running to represent the 2nd District on the Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees. She sees the economic disparity in District 2 in her job as a physician's assistant and serving on the planning and allocation committees at the Parkland Health and Hospital System. As the mother of a 2nd grader in a district that has 89 percent of its students living in high poverty, Lori decided to fight to stop school privatization and establish District 2 as a sanctuary district, with community school models and expanded access to early childhood education.
Valdez Bravo is running for the Portland Community College (PCC) Board of Directors. After serving in the Army, Valdez became the first in his family to attend college when he enrolled at PCC. He went on to graduate from Portland State University, and earned dual advanced degrees from Baylor University. Now working at a senior level in the Veterans Health Administration, Valdez's election would make him the first Latino and the only veteran on the current board of PCC. He has worked as an adjunct professor and advisory board member with the Electronic Engineering Technical program, and would bring an intimate and circumspect understanding of how to meet student needs if elected to the Board of Directors, including protecting PCC's sanctuary status for undocumented students, and supporting students, faculty, and staff to be successful.
With a vastly unqualified Secretary of Education who wants to shut down public education, revolutionizing the system is more important than ever. That's why your support today is so critical. Thank you for all that you do.
In solidarity,
Shannon Jackson
Executive Director
Our Revolution
Executive Director
Our Revolution
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