I came through Sacramento City College myself — dual enrollment, then a transfer degree, then an MBA. The path exists. It just isn't marked.
The work ahead
At American River College, 82% of students attend part-time. Among part-time, first-time degree-seeking students who entered in 2016–17, just 14% earned an associate degree within eight years.
Those aren't students who failed. They enrolled, paid, showed up, and ran out of road — often because they didn't have timely guidance or a clear plan they could follow. The district should know where students are getting lost, why it's happening, and be accountable for fixing it.
A degree should lead somewhere specific. I work in personnel for the City of Sacramento, so I see the other end of this: what employers in this region actually hire for, and where the gap sits between a credential and a job offer. That gap is closable, and closing it is board-level work — it happens in program approvals and partnerships, not in a brochure.
I won't quote a number I can't defend. If I'm asking you to judge this district by whether students finish, then the district has to publish whether they're finishing — by program, by campus, every year, in plain language. A board that only hears good news isn't governing. It's being managed.
Her story
I started college at fifteen.
I attended Washington Middle College High School in West Sacramento. The program was brand new. Registration and books were free. I took college classes while I was still in high school, and I earned an Associate Degree for Transfer in Business Administration before I finished high school — the first and only student at my high school to do it. I graduated in 2021.
I want to be honest about why that worked. It wasn't because I was exceptional. It was because my father is an educator who understood how the system was built, and he sat across the table from me and mapped it out. Which classes transferred. Which ones were a dead end. What order to take them in.
That's the whole problem.
From there: a Bachelor of Science from San José State and an MBA from Sacramento State in 2025. Today I'm a Benefit Services Personnel Technician for the City of Sacramento — classified staff, the same job category as the people who staff the counters students line up at.
I'm not running to work inside this system. I already went through it. I'm running to make it better.
She earned that transfer degree before she finished high school — the first and only student at her school to do it.
For thousands of people in Sacramento County, Los Rios is the most accessible route to a certificate, a degree, a transfer, or a better job. That comes with an obligation — to listen, to spend public money carefully, and to show results anyone can check.
The voting district
Area 1 covers the northwest corner of Sacramento County. If you vote here, this seat is on your ballot on November 3.
Area 1 includes
Live in Area 1?Check your ballot with Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections.Then vote Magdalena T. Gonzalez for Los Rios Trustee.
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