“Every Kid, Every Option”: In Far Northern California, Educators Encourage Post-Secondary Education Amidst Critical Workforce Gaps 

Students work on metal projects during an after-school lab for the Manufacturing and Robotics Career Technical Education track at Shasta High School. Photo by Annelise Pierce.

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“I’m trying to take the term ‘higher education’ out of my vocabulary.” 

That’s what Jake Mangas, CEO of the Redding Chamber of Commerce, told Shasta Scout by phone in late October. He said he’s come to understand that using that term is offensive to some because it’s like saying technical training is a lower form of education. 

“And it’s not a lower education,” Mangas emphasized, “it’s a different avenue.”

Mangas lives in rural, far northern Shasta County, California, which has about 181,000 people. Around 90% of the nearly 27,000 students enrolled in the county’s public schools are expected to graduate. 

But far fewer will move on to attend or graduate from a four-year university. Countywide, less than 24% of the county’s adults ages 25 and older hold at least a bachelor’s degree, a statistic that deeply affects the county’s economic potential. On average, Shasta County adults with a high school diploma are earning only $38,000 annually compared to those with bachelor’s degrees, who earn almost double that amount, around $60,000.

The data shows the higher income that education provides can be enough to move individuals and families out of poverty: while 18% of those with a high school diploma find themselves at or below the poverty level, that drops to 4% for those who’ve earned a bachelor’s degree. 

Overall, Shasta County’s poverty rate hovers around 14%, higher than the 12% statewide average. And with the median household income at around $60,000, many of the county’s students will qualify for deeply reduced four-year university tuition based on their family income.

But qualifying for aid also requires filling out a financial form known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Counselors at local school districts have been focusing on FAFSA completion in recent years to increase access to higher education. And the number of students turning the form in on time has increased from about 56% of seniors in 2017 to about 62% in 2023.

Completion rate for college readiness low 

But other obstacles to post-secondary education remain. One of those barriers is what’s known as the high school A–G completion rate, or the percentage of students who are graduating from high school with the foundational courses required for admission to California’s two statewide public university systems.

Last year, only about 31% of Shasta County students completed A–G, a figure that’s essentially unchanged over the last several years. It compares to a significantly higher statewide average of almost 45%. High school academic counselors are working to implement changes in the way courses are structured and scheduled and how students are advised, in order to slowly increase those numbers over time. 

As a rural county with a poverty rate above the state average, and a relatively low number of parents who hold bachelor’s degrees, Shasta County faces obvious economic and information barriers to students’ post-secondary opportunities. 

But the community also has another, more complex barrier: sociocultural resistance to university education. That’s one reason many educators, including Jim Cloney, superintendent of the Shasta Union High School District, have decided to “honor all choices” in post-secondary achievement, including certificates, the military, two-year degrees and four-year degrees.

“All kids do need training and school beyond high school in today’s economy,” Cloney told Shasta Scout by phone. “But that doesn’t mean that all kids (need to) go to a four-year school.”

Mangas and Cloney hold disparate roles in business and education, but they share a similar understanding of the hesitations some Shasta County parents have about their children attending university.

“It’s the social issues,” Mangas explained, expanding on the viewpoints he says he hears from others. “Like, ‘I don’t want my child to go to the city (for school) and come back with a different perspective on social issues and political issues.’ ” 

Unlike most Cailfornians, Shasta County voters overwhelmingly supported former President Donald Trump — twice. And the county is marked by ongoing political divides that include a lack of trust in elections, anger over public health mandates and concerns about the influence of public education on families’ core values and beliefs. 

Republican candidates for California’s Senate spoke in Shasta County in November, repeatedly triggering applause during their debate by referring to America’s four-year universities as “liberal, Marxist, woke” schools that are “brainwashing our children,” and saying such education is at the root of “anti-American” sentiment across the nation.

And in 2022, Bryan Caples, controversial superintendent candidate for the Shasta County school system, wrote in his candidate statement that he would empower school districts to eliminate COVID testing and vaccine mandates, establish local control and expand trade school and career technical training opportunities. 

“I have seen firsthand,” Caples wrote, “how the State of California has overreached its authority by implementing programs and policies that do not meet the needs of our communities or children.”

But Judy Flores, who beat out Caples in the June 2022 primary to retain her seat as the head of Shasta County’s Office of Education, said California’s education model already includes a strong focus on technical and vocational training during high school.

Flores and Cloney are both participants in Reach Higher Shasta, a “county-wide, cradle-to-career collaborative,” which since its founding in 2012 has focused on increasing pathways to post-secondary achievement in Shasta County.

The program was originally funded by the public health branch of Shasta County’s Health and Human Services Agency. The investment was made because ensuring that more Shasta County students graduate into well-paid careers aligned with workforce needs is one of the most significant ways to improve the public health of the county.

Over the last decade, Reach Higher has already contributed to the comprehensive, cross-school-district planning that has led to reduced gaps in FAFSA completion and helped more students finish A–G requirements. 

“We’re working towards better pathways for all kids,” Cloney explained,” not just those kids and parents that seek it out.”

Flores agreed, saying she too sees Reach Higher’s work paying off. “We’re definitely making steps towards a stronger understanding within our community of the value of some education beyond high school,” Flores said.

Funded by an $18 million dollar state grant, Reach Higher now hopes to connect educational outcomes with workforce needs by developing new pathways to careers in two of Shasta County’s most critically impacted professions, education and medical care.

Part of that process includes offering more information to students and parents about the educational options in local high schools and the opportunities and needs in the local workforce. 

“For many students whose parents did not choose for whatever reason to do any education beyond high school,” Flores continued, “they don’t know what options are out there beyond what’s in their immediate circle of family and friends.”

Mangas adds that some parents think they did just fine without going to college. And so will their kids.

That perspective is understandable, says Leo Perez, who works with Cloney as an associate superintendent of Shasta Union High School District. But that way of thinking, he says, is also limited by an outdated idea of the needs in today’s workforce. 

Perez oversees SUHSD’s technical education programs, known in California as Career Technical Education or CTE. It’s the kind of training, Perez says, that will help students succeed in Shasta County, but only if paired with an academic curriculum that includes teaching critical thinking skills.

“There are very few jobs (now) where you do the same thing over and over,” Perez explained. “Nowadays you have to adapt and react to various situations which require some level of critical thinking. You have to be an independent thinker, a problem solver that’s not just working out of a manual but taking input out of your education to come up with solutions.”

“Getting a high school degree and going (straight) to work in the mill is no longer a viable job,” Perez continued. “Now we need kids to have the skills to do a lot of problem solving and critical thinking.”

That means teaching more than the basics, or three R’s, of education, he says. The need for a well-rounded education is one that’s widely accepted across much of California, but in Shasta County, where the community’s proud blue-collar tradition was built on mining, lumber mills and dam construction, the idea doesn’t have as much support. 

At SUHSD, Cloney and Perez are working to help meet those workforce needs through a number of vocational tracks including manufacturing and robotics, early education and agriculture.

High School teachers Bret Barnes (left) and Brian Grigsby discuss robotics challenges with students during an after school lab that’s part of the Manufacturing and Robotics Career Technical Education track at Shasta High School. Photo by Annelise Pierce.

Last month, students in the manufacturing and robotics track at Shasta High School joked and laughed together as they worked on welding and robotics projects during an after-school lab on campus.

Their teachers, Bret Barnes and Brian Grigsby said while some of their students will go on to careers in engineering it’s equally important that others get certified to help fill local trade gaps in other fields.

“For a long time we focused on getting kids into a four year university, hands down, forget everything else, that’s the plan to get them there,” Grigsby said. 

“And I think that we started to lose some of these trade, skilled positions, some of these really good skills. . . . So we’re really ensuring the fact that while a four year education is an option, we also want to tell kids that there are some really good options available to get certification that  don’t require a four year degree. And we need more and more of those because it’s almost a lost art. Really.”

This reporting is part of a collaboration with the Institute for Nonprofit News‘ Rural News Network, and the Cardinal News, KOSU, Mississippi Today, Shasta Scout and The Texas Tribune. Support from Ascendium made the project possible.

Have questions, concerns, or comments you’d like to share with us? Reach out: editor@shastascout.org.