Community colleges expanding dental care offerings
Julia Barajas
explores how college students achieve their goals, whether they’re fresh out of high school, pursuing graduate work or looking to join the labor force through alternative pathways.
Published March 6, 2024 5:01 AM
Dental hygiene Student Biyoura Sinani and dental hygiene instructor Mariah Bonner staff work in the dental clinic at West LA College.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Topline:
Antelope Valley College offers vouchers for free basic dental care. Other SoCal community colleges provide similar services at their educational clinics.
Who’s eligible: The vouchers are solely for students who are enrolled at Antelope Valley College. The educational clinics are open to students and the public.
Why it matters: Dental pain can make it hard for students to focus on school. Poor oral health can also increase their risk of developing other health issues.
Why now: The basic needs programs at California’s Community Colleges have become increasingly robust. Food pantries are now hubs for other essential services. Staff say their goal is to address any barrier that could get in the way of student success.
Basic needs services at California’s community colleges can take any number of forms. Students might find information on how to get help with housing and transportation, or get funding for laundry, utilities, or textbooks. Many schools have also opened up their gyms so that unhoused students can access a warm shower.
Jill Zimmerman is dean of students at Antelope Valley College, home to one of the more robust basic needs programs. She said she and her colleagues are always asking themselves: “What more can we do?”
Their goal is to eliminate any barrier that could get in the way of student success, she said. So through partnerships with local clinics, or by tapping into their own resources, Antelope Valley College and other campuses have also enabled access to another essential service that’s still rare among basic needs services: dental care.
Good oral health through local partnerships
Antelope Valley College has an ongoing partnership with a clinic in Palmdale, about 15 minutes away from campus. All students — with or without insurance, and regardless of their legal status — can get a voucher for dental work every semester. These vouchers entitle students to free X-rays, oral exams, teeth cleanings, and other basic services. (For students without cars, the college also provides bus passes.)
“It's kind of a no-brainer when you think about it,” said Antelope Valley College president Jennifer Zellet. The vouchers are made possible through state funding and a $19 student health fee, she said. Antelope Valley College students can also get vouchers for other health services, including free eye exams and glasses.
Zimmerman, who has been developing the college’s basic needs program for over two decades, said that vouchers for things like dentistry or eye exams or glasses are as important as access to food. For anyone wondering what dental care has to do with education, she added, “that person has obviously never had a toothache.”
Beatriz Gongora is a second-year student who’s getting ready to transfer. She’s a singer who also plays the tenor saxophone, the piano, and the drums. Her goal is to become a music teacher.
Earlier in her college journey, Gongora found herself couch surfing and struggling to find an affordable place to stay. The instability made it hard to keep up in school, she said. She turned to the school’s basic needs center for support, and staff helped her secure free housing through a third-party program.
They also got her a dental voucher; it had been nearly three years since her last visit.
“I got a couple fillers, and I didn't have to pay anything out of pocket,” she said.
Other area colleges are making more of an effort too.
Dental hygiene student Biyoura Sinani and instructor Mariah Bonner at work in West L.A. College.
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Long Beach City College has also explored subsidizing oral care.
At the school's Viking Vault, nearly 1,000 students stock up on groceries every week. Last year, they also had a chance to sign up for dental care, said Justin Mendez, the basic needs director.
A local clinic was hosting a day of service and through a one-time partnership, Long Beach City College provided off-campus dental care for students. These services included free teeth cleanings to remove plaque and tartar, which can cause cavities and decay. Mendez said they plan to host more of these events in the near future.
Dental hygiene student Abigail Martinez sits in as a patient for her classmate, Tuesy Phung, who is practicing an exam.
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In-house services
While some colleges provide off-campus dental care through partnerships with local clinics, others offer these services through their educational clinics.
Here’s how to make an appointment at a local educational dental clinic:
For West L.A College, fill out this interest form (available in English and Spanish).
At both campuses, services are limited to those that meet the needs of students in training. The procedures will be carried out by students, under the supervision of licensed dentists or dental hygienists.
At Pasadena City College, the Dental Hygiene Clinic offers low-cost services for students and the general public. These include teeth cleanings, X-rays, and sealants. (Those protect molars from cavities.) The procedures are performed by dental hygiene students, under the supervision of licensed dentists and dental hygienists.
West L.A. College — one of the four California Community Colleges that offer bachelor's degrees in dental hygiene — also has an on-campus clinic. There, students and community members can access free services similar to Pasadena City College’s.
The student clinic is “very popular,” in part because patients don’t need insurance to be treated, said Lisa Kamibayashi, director of the dental hygiene program. The clinic is open to anyone who’s interested. Some patients have even come from out-of-state.
All students are also supervised by professionals. But, because they’re in training, Kamibayashi added, services usually take “a little bit longer than usual.”
Dental Hygiene Program Director Lisa Kamibayashi, inside the dental clinic at West L.A. College.
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Luis Rosales enrolled in West L.A. College’s bachelor’s program after years of working as a dental assistant.
“I wanted to grow within the field,” he said. Plus, as a first-generation college student, he wants to set an example for his children and siblings.
Among other things, he’s learned how to use X-rays to better detect cavities, bone loss, and infections.
Hien Tran is close to completing her coursework. Her goal is to run a clinic with her brother, who's currently in dental school.
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Hien Tran, also a student at West L.A. College, is getting close to completing her bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene.
Looking back on her first time treating a patient, she recalls feeling unnerved. There was “a lot of blood,” she said. Tran was grateful that her professor was there to guide her through the process. Since then, she’s provided care for dozens of patients. And through this experience, she learned the importance of putting patients at ease.
Patients “usually have anxiety when they have to get injections,” she said. “So you need to learn how to [do procedures] without making a face ... You need to be confident, so they don’t feel scared.”
The West L.A. bachelor's program can be competitive. Each year, they get about 200 applications for 35 slots.
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Dental students and staff pose for a photo in the dental clinic at West LA College.
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Brian Feinzimer
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A bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene will open doors for students, Kamibayashi said. Graduates “can go into teaching, research, sales, or public health. Some go on to dental school.”
As for other students on campus, Kamibayashi said that while dental pain can certainly make it hard for students to focus, the issue goes beyond academic performance. Poor oral health can increase their risk of developing “cardiovascular and respiratory [issues], even dementia,” she said. The clinic is meant to support their long-term health.
De’Mon Tyndell, owner of The Quesadilla Calling, plays a game of pool in the storage area where he keeps the food cart he recently received from the city of Long Beach on Feb. 25.
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Thomas R. Cordova.
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Long Beach Post
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Topline:
More than a year-and-a-half after promising to provide up to 40 free carts to eligible street vendors, Long Beach hasn’t even made it halfway to that goal and now plans to cut funding for the program.
Low participation: As of late February, Long Beach has supplied 11 free carts, with six more applicants waiting for final approvals. Health officials say this is because out of the 123 applicants, the vast majority haven’t completed all the steps necessary. Applications are still open for vendors seeking a free cart, but city officials are reviewing “the application process and overall program,” Health Department spokesperson Jennifer Ann Gonzalez wrote in an email.
Why now: Long Beach originally allocated $429,500 for the free-cart program, but the City Council recently approved reducing that by $200,201, citing “low participation” and the need to balance a city budget that’s facing deficits.
More than a year-and-a-half after promising to provide up to 40 free carts to eligible street vendors, Long Beach hasn’t even made it halfway to that goal and now plans to cut funding for the program.
As of late February, Long Beach had supplied 11 free carts, with six more applicants waiting for final approvals. Health officials say this is because out of the 123 applicants, the vast majority haven’t completed all the steps necessary.
Long Beach originally allocated $429,500 for the free-cart program, but the City Council recently approved reducing that by $200,201, citing “low participation” and the need to balance a city budget that’s facing deficits.
Applications are still open for vendors seeking a free cart, but city officials are reviewing “the application process and overall program,” Health Department spokesperson Jennifer Ann Gonzalez wrote in an email.
Vendors, for their part, say the process was plagued by delays and complications.
Anita McCoy, who sells pastrami and hot dogs through her business Lucky Bee, said it took roughly eight months to receive a cart that was worth about $17,500. She was grateful but said it took countless emails and phone calls to the Health Department to finally get the finished product.
“I had to be diligent in my pursuit,” McCoy said.
De’Mon Tyndell, who runs The Quesadilla Calling, received his cart roughly a year after applying.
At one point, after months of email exchanges and “doing applications on applications,” Tyndell told city staff, “I don’t even want to do this anymore.”
Although he has the cart, Tyndell said he doesn’t use it for his various pop-ups throughout the week because the roughly 800-pound mobile kitchen is not “user friendly” to transport.
De’Mon Tyndell says the free cart he received from the city hasn’t been practical to use.
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Thomas R. Cordova.
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Long Beach Post
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Moving it requires a trailer with a winch because the cart’s built-in wheels are too small for it to be towed around, Tyndell said.
As a result, the cart has been sitting in storage for the past six months while he uses a flattop grill and tables he can easily load in his van.
The free cart program was aimed at small-time entrepreneurs who needed help complying with new rules the city drafted on street vending. To qualify, applicants needed to live in Long Beach, have no more than two full-time employees and operate only one cart. If approved, they could receive one of four types: fruit carts, grilled food carts, tamale carts and ice cream carts.
But many people trying to run a low-margin business don’t have time for a complicated application process.
For McCoy, selling pastramis and hot dogs from a corner in North Long Beach is just one of her side businesses. That means she doesn’t have to be out every day to bring in enough cash to sustain her operation. That flexibility gave her the time to pursue the free cart with a sense of urgency.
“I was begging them [to give me a cart] because I knew the program was going to be cut,” McCoy said.
Meanwhile, since early last year, the city has begun penalizing street vendors who don’t comply with its rules.
Health Department officials say it’s a necessary step to prevent food-borne illness caused by vendors who haven’t gone through a health inspection.
From early last year through Feb. 23, city staff seized and discarded food from 72 vendors and issued 103 administrative citations against vendors without an active business license. In 71 cases, they’ve also impounded street vendors’ equipment.
Penalties for the citations range from $100 to $500, depending on how many times a vendor has been cited.
Enforcement is carried out based on complaints. The Health Department says its staff first tries to educate vendors on how to comply, then they issue a notice of violation and finally an administrative citation. If vendors don’t heed that citation, a team responds to discard food and impound equipment.
Starting in 2022, California banned cities from outlawing street vendors altogether, but municipalities are still allowed to regulate when, where and how they can sell for health and safety reasons.
Since Long Beach adopted its rules, the city has received 358 applications from vendors seeking a business license to operate legally. As of Feb. 23, the city has granted just 55 (15.4%).
Rather than risk being cited, Tyndell limits his selling to pop-ups at farmers markets, outside bars and various events around the city where he can more easily get permits. Recently, he got a spot selling inside Good Times Billiards — a pool hall in Lakewood — and hopes to add a second location inside another pool hall on Broadway in Alamitos Beach.
That business is awaiting city approval, but Tyndell said he aims to open by the end of the month. There, he says, he’ll finally use his free cart to serve up gourmet quesadillas.
Jill Replogle
covers public corruption, debates over our voting system, culture war battles — and more.
Published March 4, 2026 3:34 PM
A file photo of the Vietnam War memorial at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley that was started, but never completed.
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Jill Replogle
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LAist
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Topline:
A Vietnam War memorial that became a symbol of government corruption was torn today in Fountain Valley. Former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do had awarded $1 million in taxpayer dollars for the memorial in 2023 — to a nonprofit where his daughter was an officer. The project was never completed.
Why now? Authorities said the unfinished project was cracked and deteriorating. And it would have been too costly to repair it.
Why it matters: The memorial came to represent the scandal that forced Do from office. He is currently serving a five-year prison sentence after admitting to directing money to several nonprofit groups and businesses that then funneled some of that money back to himself and family members for personal gain.
Keep reading ... for a closer look at one of the biggest scandals in Orange County history.
A Vietnam War memorial that became a symbol of government corruption was torn down Wednesday in Fountain Valley.
Former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do had awarded $1 million in taxpayer dollars for the memorial in 2023 — to a nonprofit where his daughter, Rhiannon Do, was an officer.
The project was never completed.
When LAist visited the memorial last year, it was unfinished and cracked. And an architect who visited the site with LAist estimated that the monument cost a fraction of the taxpayer money awarded to build it.
Do is currently serving a five-year prison sentence in Arizona after admitting to directing money to several nonprofit groups and businesses that then funneled some of that money back to himself and family members for personal gain. LAist has been investigating the alleged corruption since 2023.
Do was also ordered to pay $878,230.80in restitution for his role in the bribery scheme that saw millions in taxpayer dollars diverted from feeding needy seniors, leading authorities to label him a “Robin Hood in reverse.”
Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who now represents Do’s former district, which includes the memorial site, said it would have been too expensive to repair or relocate it.
“Let’s restart and do it right,” she said at the time.
Go deeper ...
Here's a look at some of LAist's coverage of one of the biggest corruption scandals in Orange County history:
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Betty Yee, former California State Controller, speaks during a state gubernatorial forum at the UCSF Mission Bay campus in San Francisco on Jan. 26. The forum was hosted by the Urban League of the Bay Area.
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Beth LaBerge
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KQED
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Topline:
In an open letter to campaigns published Tuesday, California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hick urged Democratic gubernatorial candidates to make an honest assessment of their chances before Friday — the deadline to file and officially appear on the ballot in June.
Why now: The chair’s plea comes weeks after Democratic delegates failed to agree on an endorsement at the state party convention in San Francisco. With nine major Democrats still vying for the state’s top job, party insiders have fretted for weeks about a splintered primary vote that could result in the two leading Republicans — commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — finishing first and second in the June 2 primary and ensuring a GOP victor in November. But candidates who have been mired in single-digits for months, including State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former state Controller Betty Yee, showed no immediate signs of heading toward the exits.
Low-polling Democratic candidates for governor of California struck a defiant tone Tuesday in the face of mounting pressure from party leaders to drop out before a key deadline this week.
With nine major Democrats still vying for the state’s top job, party insiders have fretted for weeks about a splintered primary vote that could result in the two leading Republicans — commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — finishing first and second in the June 2 primary and ensuring a GOP victor in November.
In an open letter to campaigns published Tuesday, California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks called that scenario implausible but “not impossible” and urged Democratic candidates to make an honest assessment of their chances before Friday — the deadline to file and officially appear on the ballot in June.
“If you do not have a viable path to make it to the general election, do not file to place your name on the ballot for the primary election,” Hicks wrote.
But candidates who have been mired in single digits for months, including state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former state Controller Betty Yee, showed no immediate signs of heading toward the exits.
At the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office in Oakland, Yee filed the paperwork to officially place her name on the ballot.
“When I was signing the declaration of candidacy, my hands were shaking because I just thought about my mother, who is 102, and how within a generation she’s able to see her daughter do this,” Yee told KQED. “We’re undergoing a process of constant assessment, and every time we do that, we just see that this is still a wide-open race.”
Thurmond, who is Black and Latino, accused the state party of “essentially telling every candidate of color in the race for governor to drop out.”
“Aren’t we supposed to be the party who embraces democracy — a party of, by and for the people?” Thurmond said in a video posted to social media. “Well, the establishment might not be, but our campaign is, and that’s why we’re in this race to win it.”
Hicks did not call on any specific candidates to leave the race but asked those who continue their campaigns beyond this week to “be prepared to suspend your campaign and endorse another candidate on or before April 15 if your campaign cannot show meaningful progress toward winning the primary election in the coming weeks.”
The chair’s plea comes weeks after Democratic delegates failed to agree on an endorsement at the state party convention in San Francisco.
Since then, polling in the race has been largely static, with investor Tom Steyer (who has spent tens of millions of dollars on television ads) being the only Democrat to see significant traction in recent surveys.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter and Steyer were the top polling Democrats in polls released last month by Emerson College and the Public Policy Institute of California.
Below that trio is a crowded field of Democratic hopefuls that includes Thurmond and Yee, along with former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San José Mayor Matt Mahan and former Assemblymember Ian Calderon.
Meanwhile, Hilton and Bianco have faced little competition for the Republican primary vote.
Jon Slavet, a GOP tech entrepreneur who was polling at around 1%, suspended his campaign Tuesday.
“The last few months have been a gift,” said Slavet, in a video posted on social media. “It’s also shown me that building a winning coalition, brick by brick, will take time.”
With Slavet out of the field, a primary election simulator created by Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc., put the chances of a Republican vs. Republican general election at roughly 25%.
In his letter, Hicks said a Bianco-Hilton general election would not only upend Democratic leadership of state government but also depress Democratic turnout in the California congressional districts the party is hoping to flip in November.
“The result would present a real risk to winning the congressional seats required and imperil Democrats’ chances to retake the House, cut Donald Trump’s term in half, and spare our Nation from the pain many have endured since January 2025,” Hicks wrote. “We simply can’t let that happen.”
From left to right, former Congressmember Katie Porter, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Bacerra, former state Controller Betty Yee and California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond respond to a question at a governor's candidate forum in Los Angeles on Sept. 28, 2025.
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Carlin Stiehl
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Topline:
At least nine Democrats are competing to succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2026 general election, but first they'll have to get through the June primary. The crowded field has raised fears among Democrats that they could be entirely locked out of the November election.
Republican candidates leading the race: Polls have shown former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco leading the race, with the top Democrat — Bay Area Rep. Eric Swalwell — essentially tied. With such a wide-open field, Democrats at the party's February convention were unable to endorse a single candidate, meaning pressure is building on candidates with lower polling numbers and less ability to fundraise to drop out of the race.
Read on . . . for more on each of the nine candidates left in California's gubernatorial race.
Last updated: Feb. 24, 2026
At least nine Democrats are competing to succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2026 general election, but first they'll have to get through the June primary. The crowded field has raised fears among Democrats that they could be entirely locked out of the November election.
Polls have shown former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco leading the race, with the top Democrat — Bay Area Rep. Eric Swalwell — essentially tied.
With such a wide-open field, Democrats at the party's February convention were unable to endorse a single candidate, meaning pressure is building on candidates with lower polling numbers and less ability to fundraise to drop out of the race.
The primary election is June 2. Here’s a look at the field right now:
Matt Mahan
Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, is the latest Democrat to enter the race after saying in the fall he wasn’t excited by the selection of candidates. Don’t expect him to join the other candidates’ jockeying to be the biggest opponent to president Donald Trump. A Silicon Valley moderate, he’s criticized Newsom for overly focusing on “resisting” Trump, especially on social media.
He says the state over-regulates businesses and fails to comprehensively address homelessness and crime. He broke with the party in 2024 to support Proposition 36, the ballot measure voters approved to increase penalties on some drug and theft charges. Mahan has honed in on reducing street homelessness with hundreds of tiny homes as well as a policy to arrest unhoused people who refuse repeated offers of shelter placements.
Xavier Becerra
If former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was looking for attention for his campaign, he found it in the form of negative headlines.
Last month, federal prosecutors indicted a Sacramento powerbroker in an alleged corruption scandal that rocked the state’s Democratic establishment. At its center? A dormant campaign account held by Becerra, from which prosecutors allege Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff Dana Williamson conspired with other political consultants to steal $225,000. Williamson is charged with helping to divert the funds to the wife of Becerra’s longtime aide, Sean McCluskie, who has pleaded guilty in the alleged scheme.
Becerra was California’s first Latino attorney general before serving as a cabinet secretary for former President Joe Biden. He is running primarily on a platform of lowering health care costs.
He has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case and has said he was unaware of what was happening. But it’s still possible the association — and the implication he wasn’t paying attention — will taint his campaign, already polling at just 8% last fall.
The controversy is one of a few moments of intrigue in an otherwise quiet race.
Katie Porter
In October, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat, was caught on camera trying to walk out of a TV interview with a reporter who pressed her on whether she needed Republican support in the race. A second video followed, showing Porter berating a staff member during a Zoom call. At the time considered the front-runner, she rode out the news cycle and later said she “could have done better” about the behavior in the videos, but they appeared to have dropped her approval ratings. She is essentially tied with the top Republican candidate.
Porter made a name for herself as one of a “blue wave” of female, Democratic lawmakers elected to Congress during the first Trump administration in 2018. A law professor at UC Irvine who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate last year, she gained attention for her tough questioning of corporate executives using her signature whiteboard.
Tom Steyer
Joining a wide field of other Democrats, billionaire investor and climate activist Tom Steyer announced in November he is jumping into the race.
Then-Democratic presidential primary candidate Tom Steyer addresses a crowd during a party in Columbia, South Carolina, on Feb. 29, 2020.
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Steyer, who made his fortune by founding a San Francisco hedge fund, has used his wealth to back liberal causes, including the environment. He’s never held public office before, but ran a short-lived campaign for president in 2020. He has honed in on reining in Californians' second-highest-in-the-nation electricity bills, though some experts are skeptical of his proposals.
Chad Bianco
Pro-Trump Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is neck-and-neck with Porter in the polls, though he is unlikely to last near the top of the pack in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two-to-one and a GOP candidate hasn’t won a statewide seat in nearly 20 years.
The cowboy-hat-toting Bianco has heavily criticized Democratic governance. He argues for loosening regulations on businesses and says he wants to overturn California’s sanctuary law that restricts local police from cooperating with federal deportation officers.
Eric Swallwell
Other Democrats have focused on their biographies and experiences in government to try to distinguish themselves in a race where name recognition is low across the board. All have said they want to make California more affordable and push back on the Trump administration’s impact on the state.
Rep. Eric Swalwell speaks during a press conference after a rally in support of Proposition 50 at IBEW Local 6 in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2025.
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Swalwell, a former prosecutor and Bay Area congressman, will likely lean heavily on his anti-Trump bonafides. He was one of several members of Congress appointed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help lead the second Trump impeachment after the attempted Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and is now the latest Democrat under attack by the Trump administration over his mortgage.
Antonio Villaraigosa
Former Los Angeles mayor and former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa is among the more moderate of the Democratic field. He boasts of his time running the state’s largest city, during which he boosted the police force. He ran for governor unsuccessfully in 2018.
Betty Yee
Former state Controller Betty Yee emphasizes her experience with the state budget and the tax system, having been a top finance office in ex-Gov. Gray Davis’ administration and having sat on the state Board of Equalization.
Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, a Democrat, is the only candidate currently in a statewide seat. He emphasizes his background as a social worker who grew up on public assistance programs in a low-income family. He has stated an ambitious goal of building two million housing units on surplus state land.
Ian Calderon
Ian Calderon, a former Democratic Assembly majority leader, is emphasizing his relative youth. He was the first millennial member of the state Assembly, and is part of a Los Angeles County political dynasty. He has some ties to the cryptocurrency industry and has name-dropped it in ads and debates.
Steve Hilton
Republican Steve Hilton, a Fox News contributor, was an adviser for British conservative Prime Minister David Cameron before pivoting to American politics. Before launching his campaign he released a book this year calling California “America’s worst-run state.”
