Measure Up

Measure Up… As a college student, young Squid excelled at penmanship – thanks to that self-replenishing ink supply. But Squid’s undersea alma mater (and Squid’s excellent handwriting skills) did not help Squid’s lair when it came to WalletHub’s 2024 rankings of the most and least educated cities in America. Out of 150 metro areas, Squid found Salinas near the bottom, 142 out of 150 (Visalia was last).

Squid knows more than a few people who moved to the region specifically for educational purposes, whether to study or as educators, or both, so Squid decided to read up on the methodology. WalletHub took into account the percentage of adults with at least a high school diploma, a college degree or graduate degree. It also took into account the percentage of students enrolled in a top university – by referring to WalletHub’s own ranking report on colleges and universities. That list starts with Yale, MIT and Princeton – and ignores most of Monterey County’s educational institutions, including two community colleges and plethora of graduate-level institutions (Naval Postgraduate School, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories of San Jose State, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station, Hastings Natural History Reservation of the UC system, etc.)

Squid did not attend a top 10 school or even top 500, but Squid’s educational attainment is enough to give Squid the skills to read through WalletHub’s methodology and raise Squid’s eyebrows.

Beggars and Choosers… Of all the dysfunction Squid has witnessed from elected officials on local councils and boards, the members of the Monterey Peninsula Community College District Board of Trustees might just take the crab cake. They have been squabbling during meetings for months – even a professional mediator couldn’t help. Recently three complaints were filed by trustees against other trustees, the details of which have not been disclosed to the public.

In November three seats are up for grabs, which means voters have an opportunity to clean house. Just to make sure everyone knows, MPC sent out a press release on July 2, advertising that three of five seats are open, providing info on the candidate filing period (July 15-Aug. 19). The seats available are currently held by Chair Libby Downey and trustees Loren Steck and Debbie Anthony. Downey and Steck have recently resisted attempts to follow board policy to resolve the outstanding complaints. Anthony has been argumentative with the rest of the board since she was elected in 2020.

Elections matter, and while it isn’t democracy in the balance, the MPCCD election could restore peace to the district, tentacles crossed.