San Diego student futures more hopeful than you might think

WalletHub, the statistical aggregator, has come out with a study of educational attainment among American 150 metro areas. San Diego County is 20th in “most educated.” The ones at the top tend to be areas in which education dominates the economy (Ann Arbor, Durham-Chapel Hill, Madison, Boston) and areas whose industry requires highly educated employees, such as San Jose (Silicon Valley.)

There is another category called “attainment gap.” That refers to the educational gap among races, gender, and low-income students vs. more advantaged peers. I went to the analyst, Jill Gonzalez. She says San Diego metro ranks 36th for racial educational gap, “which means there are more white bachelor’s degree holders than there are black.”

In the gender education gap, San Diego ranks 91st. “The shares of female and male bachelor’s degree holders are almost identical, with a difference of only 0.1 percent.” The 90 metro areas above San Diego have more female bachelor’s degree holders than male.

The encouraging news: “For educational equality among students with different financial backgrounds, the San Diego metro area ranked 13th."