Rancho Santiago Community College District Area 5 candidate Samuel Ulloa could not afford to buy a candidate’s statement so he asked us to post it here. Those statements can cost over two thousand dollars. If you are running for office in Santa Ana and could not afford to buy a statement send it to us and we will post it here.

I’m a first generation American and college graduate. I’m running for office because our school system is broken and I’m tired of no one doing anything about it. The costs are rising and the quality is stagnant.

I’m a lifelong learner now, but it wasn’t so easy studying growing up. Simply put, I learned more about how and where the school is failing than about the subjects I was supposed to learn. I worked at Domino’s Pizza, Panera Bread, and UC Irvine, while in school and I actually owe them a lot of credit to teaching me the practical.

After supplementing my BA Public Health degree with programming courses online, I worked as a data specialist, data analyst, and web developer as my primary career. This is uniquely beneficial during our current crisis. Online courses are becoming more normal and I took many. The world needs leaders that can examine data and use technology to solve problems accurately, but within the bounds of the law and respecting everyone’s rights.

If elected I commit to opposing new taxes and bonds, realigning incentives of the school, and protecting undocumented students.

• I don’t think raising taxes or issuing new bonds are a long term solution for our schools. I will oppose new taxes and bonds. We need to reduce waste and find ways to innovate instead.
• Incentives are completely misaligned between schools and students. Schools don’t really care if they provide job opportunities for the students. Instead they change the metric over time and guarantee themselves to meet them. I will realign the incentives of the school to meet the needs of the taxpayers and students.
• I commit to doing everything in my power to protect undocumented students.