Frank Lara is a dedicated educator, union leader, and organizer whose commitments to racial justice, immigrant rights, and working class unity have guided his work in California for decades. Based in San Francisco, Frank has over ten years of classroom teaching experience and knows the realities and conditions of our public schools all too well. Having served as the Executive Vice President of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) since 2021, Frank has been fighting alongside his union siblings for better learning conditions for students and better working conditions for educators, and has played an important role in transforming the union to become a fighting, organized union, one of the strongest educator unions in the state of California.

Born to immigrant parents and raised in the working class border-town of Calexico, Frank grew up with a clear understanding of the challenges immigrant communities face in California. He first began organizing for immigrant rights as a student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he graduated in 2008. He earned his teaching credential with bilingual authorization shortly after, knowing he wanted to work in San Francisco’s Mission District in a multilingual environment. Frank quickly took on leadership roles at his school, becoming a union steward, as well as a master teacher, mentoring new bilingual teachers and supporting them as they entered their challenging and fulfilling roles as educators. In 2015, he was awarded the Teacher 4 Social Justice “Thank-a-Teacher” Award and the 826 Valencia “Teacher of the Month” Award. 

Through his work as a bilingual educator, a leader in his union, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and member of the Peace and Freedom Party of California, Frank has fought continuously for the rights of immigrant students and families. After Trump was elected in 2016, Frank organized alongside his whole school community, planning and leading anti-fascist marches and a 3,000-student march against the caging of children and family separation. In 2016, he was nominated to take part in a racial justice task force with the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and was awarded the CFT “Pride of the Union” Award in 2017. When the Covid-19 lockdown went into effect in 2020, Frank helped organize a campaign for educators to donate stimulus checks and raised over $100,000 for undocumented families, who had been excluded from the federal aid, and was awarded the Bay Area Jefferson Award for Supporting Undocumented Workers. 

As Executive Vice President of a 6,000-member union, Frank has had to learn the ins and outs of how a large, urban school district works, and worked to develop a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of school finance, district compliance, and state education policy. He currently serves on the California Teachers Association (CTA) Financing Public Education Committee, which determines the union’s position on legislation related to costs and finance. During his tenure as Executive Vice President, Frank has held Superintendents and their cabinets to high standards to implement staffing models and business service protocols that respect educators and the work they do. Additionally, Frank led the union through the tumultuous period where the San Francisco Unified School District's new payroll system missed payments to over 4,000 employees, and organized efforts to fight for dignity and fair pay for educators during that time. 

Frank’s experiences and leadership in the classroom, in the union hall, and in the streets demonstrate his unique abilities to connect different struggles and build working class unity in a society that often sows division and tries to isolate us from one another. Our schools are in crisis, but Frank’s unwavering commitment to collective liberation and decades of relevant experience make him ready to lead as Superintendent of Public Instruction and continue fighting for the schools our students deserve.