California

These 5 Central Valley cities are among nation’s least-educated, study finds

By Don Sweeney
File - In this Dec. 21, 2014 file photo, late light falls on Wheeler Hall, South Hall and the Campanile on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Calif. University of California officials have proposed limiting nonresident enrollment to 20 percent of all undergraduate students, in an effort to prioritize in-state applicants. The proposal introduced Monday, March 6, 2017, would be the first limit of its kind for the 10-campus public university. The Board of Regents will consider it starting next week. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
File - In this Dec. 21, 2014 file photo, late light falls on Wheeler Hall, South Hall and the Campanile on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Calif. University of California officials have proposed limiting nonresident enrollment to 20 percent of all undergraduate students, in an effort to prioritize in-state applicants. The proposal introduced Monday, March 6, 2017, would be the first limit of its kind for the 10-campus public university. The Board of Regents will consider it starting next week. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File) Eric Risberg The Associated Press file

A report on the nation’s most- and least-educated cities gives the Bay Area top marks, but several Central Valley cities fall to the bottom of the list.

Central Valley communities came in as five of the nation’s bottom 10 least-educated cities — Fresno, Stockton, Modesto, Bakersfield and Visalia, which comes in dead last at No. 150. Salinas also makes the bottom 10.

So who is smartest, according to the study?

San Jose and San Francisco are among the top 10 most-educated cities among the 150 surveyed by personal finance website WalletHub, according to the report. The top spot was claimed by Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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San Luis Obispo lacks enough population to be ranked, but nearby Santa Maria-Santa Barbara comes in at No. 81.

Sacramento lands at No. 53.

Other California cities on the list include San Diego at No. 20, Santa Rosa at No. 36, Thousand Oaks at No. 65, Los Angeles at No. 98, Vallejo at No. 115 and Riverside at No. 137.

WalletHub compiled the rankings by comparing the nation’s top 150 metropolitan areas across 11 metrics, such as education levels of adults 25 or over, school quality and gender and racial education gaps.

This story was originally published July 24, 2018 at 1:21 PM with the headline "These 5 Central Valley cities are among nation’s least-educated, study finds."

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