Yolie Flores

Yolie Flores has spent her career fighting for better opportunities for children, particularly those from immigrant and low-income families, so it’s no surprise that she has been a champion of the charter school movement in Los Angeles.

After she was elected to the L.A. Unified Board of Education in 2007, Flores wanted to make sure that parents had access to quality schools, rather than get stuck with whatever school happened to be down the street. So she introduced Public School Choice, which let qualified groups of educators, often including charter management organizations, apply to run new schools.

Public School Choice has brought 6,500 charter school seats to Los Angeles. Parents who’d never had a say in which school their child attends are now able to choose the best environment. Moreover, many of these new charter schools have yielded greater student achievement results than their traditional counterparts.

Today, as CEO of Communities for Teaching Excellence, Flores works closely with the parents and teachers at The College-Ready Promise, consortium of charters that includes Alliance, Aspire, Green Dot, and PUC. She continues to advocate for options for families, including high quality charter schools.