The Honorable Mónica García

In June 2006, Mónica García became the third Latina elected to the Board of Education in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) 155-year history. Winning her re-election, she served the nation’s second-largest school district for an unprecedented eight years as Board President.

An East Los Angeles native, Mónica was very aware of the issues plaguing the LAUSD when she took office. With her bold call for “Diplomas for All,” she successfully championed innovative school reform models and led the campaign for a $7 billion school bond, the largest in US history. To date, more than 250,000 students are now served in this growing portfolio of reform models, which include single-gender academies, partnership schools, in-district “pilot” schools operating under a reform labor contract, and charter schools.

Acutely aware that English Learners (ELs) account for one in every four of the LAUSD’s student community, Mónica increased focus on the needs of ELs and affected a transformation in the District’s instructional approach. According to the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), this shift has yielded outstanding results and led to the District reclassifying students as fluent in English at the highest rate since the test was first issued.

Mónica has devoted her life to making Los Angeles a better place to live, work and raise a family. Whether she was co-founding Comadres in Action and Camp College Los Angeles, serving as an Academic Advisor with the Volunteers of America’s Educational Talent Search Program, or working with the LAUSD, Mónica’s commitment to advancing the educational aspirations of our community’s youth has never faltered.

Mónica attended local schools, became a TELACU Scholar, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor’s degree in Chicano/a Studies and Political Science. She later earned her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Southern California.