Andra Cernavskis is the California Reporter for The Hechinger Report. A recent graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously worked as a reporter for The Buffalo News, and San Francisco’s missionlocal.org, and The Santa Fe New Mexican.
As an undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal, Andra wrote extensively on North America’s largest student movement when the government of Quebec proposed a 75 percent increase in tuition over five years.
Andra first became aware of the injustices in our educational system when she was caught chewing gum in her fifth grade classroom. Her teacher promptly made her drop the piece of gum from her mouth onto a sheet that outlined many punishments, including 75 years of detention, while the entire class watched. Luckily for her, and much to Mr. Mistretta’s chagrin and Andra's immense relief, the gum landed on the “get out of jail” free space.
