Higher education rate lags among Latinos, Hispanics in greater Sacramento region
As the Hispanic and Latino populations grow in California, access to higher education is still low among these ethnic groups.
"As much as we have made strides, it still seems that they're not as big as we'd like," said Cathy Rodríguez Aguirre, president and CEO of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (SACHCC), speaking from the State of Hispanics 2021 event. "I think it's because we're a very positive community and we talk about a person who graduated or 'this is what happened' and we're excited about it, but the reality is the percentages are still less than 20%."
The lag starts after high school.
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In the six-county greater Sacramento region, 17% of the Hispanic population has at least a bachelor's degree, which is less than half the rate (36%) of the non-Hispanic population, according to the chamber's first Hispanic Economic Report.
The statistics don't surprise Sacramento State University student Tiffany Abril Quintero Jiménez, who is a first-generation college student.
Others like María Piña, feel the same way. They believe that the lack of education is sometimes about survival.
"Most of them either get out of high school so they can help out their family and start working. Most of them just go to work in the fields, some of them just get their high school degree and just go off to work from there," she said.
In the greater Sacramento region, the group with the most Bachelor's degree attainment are 25- to 40-year-olds, at 15%.
"It's really stressful because when you're a first-generation, you don't have a guide to go by. You're literally on your own. Your parents don't know it and you're also trying to be an example for your younger siblings and younger cousins," Piña said about the pressure of being the first at home to pursue higher education.
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These students hope that talking about this, along with resources to the most underserved, can change these statistics.
Tiffany Abril Quintero Jiménez said, "Pushing Latinos to have that mindset: you don't have to do agriculture work, you don't have to work in the fields, you don't have to do this. The whole reason why we're here is to have an opportunity to better ourselves."
Other fields where Hispanics and Latinos are underrepresented are health care and management, and fields where they're overrepresented, are farming, cleaning and maintenance, and construction.
Of the Hispanic students graduating from high school in the Sacramento region, only about one-third had the requirements to enter a university in the CSU or UC systems.