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ELECTION 2026 - Dr. Rocío Rivas has been a breath of fresh air since joining the L.A. school board in December 2022. She is a first-generation immigrant, educator, and product of L.A. public schools with a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD from Columbia University.
She is also parent of a thriving LAUSD high-school student. And she now serves as the Vice President of the LAUSD board, overseeing the largest school district in California and the second largest in the U.S.
Now Dr. Rivas is running for reelection. She and the many volunteers she inspires navigate a landscape marred with daily ambushes of residents by masked, armed federal agents and marked by the resurgence of a grassroots movement to protect democracy in America.
“Our public schools are pillars of our democracy,” Dr. Rivas told a cheering, standing-room-only crowd at her reelection campaign kickoff in late January in Lincoln Heights.
In the communities she represents, in Board District 2, covering much of Eastside and Northeast L.A., Dr. Rivas and organizations that have endorsed her, including East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), aim to spark hope and positive engagement with neighbors at the very moment when ICE and the Trump Administration’s attacks on public education seek to intimidate and demoralize the electorate. That effort is paying dividends, thanks in part to Dr. Rivas’ own record of results.
As Vice President of the Board, Dr. Rivas has worked with others to deliver for students, parents, and educators. These include putting Measure US on the ballot in 2024 to secure $9 billion to modernize our schools and two consecutive years of better student learning in reading, math, and science across all grade levels.
She has also led the way in transforming school campuses by removing asphalt, expanding green space, and creating
cooler, healthier places for students. And Dr. Rivas has expanded college and job pathways, giving students more options after graduation.
Alongside these achievements, Dr. Rivas has worked hard to protect students from lawless raids and arrests by the squads of federal agents now targeting Angelenos.
With firsthand passion and extraordinary professional know-how, she took the lead to educate all students, parents, and staff about their Constitutional rights — in the form of widely distributed, multilingual Red Cards — amidst ICE detentions and attempted intrusions into schools that terrified L.A. communities.
Dr. Rivas also reined in co-locations of charter schools that divided public-school campuses and siphoned away resources from students, class offerings, and after-school activities. She championed the safety and inclusion of LGBTQ+ students in the face of bullying and dehumanizing attacks on diversity. Among other important oversight duties, she worked to get millions of additional dollars for arts and music funding approved by state voters in 2022 into the hands of arts teachers and into classrooms where they belong.
Dr. Rivas triumphed in her first campaign despite being heavily outspent, thanks to a legion of volunteers. Now she may exceed that level of 200, even in an environment where many volunteers wear whistles to warn neighbors and protest the threatening presence of paramilitary agents on the blocks of L.A. where they are collecting signatures.
The phrase “Sí se puede” — Yes, We Can — popularized by labor and women’s rights leader Dolores Huerta takes on deeper meaning in this challenging climate. That may be one reason the slogan ripples through the campaign to reelect Dr. Rocío Rivas this spring and echoes in the message of volunteers by the dozen, knocking doors, conversing with neighbors, and doing the work to win.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns have appeared in USA Today and leading newspapers across more than 20 states. Based in Eagle Rock, he serves as president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), California’s largest grassroots Democratic club with over 1,100 members. Hans brings decades of organizing and policy experience to his work, advancing equity and accountability in local and national politics.)
