Hanford officials say the city's Joint Educational Center will help usher in higher-paying jobs in Kings County, notoriously famous for offering an abundance of low-paying work in retail and agriculture. They say the multimillion-dollar facility, complete with the city's third high school, a vocational center, the new College of the Sequoias Hanford campus and an athletic complex, will catapult the educational level of the county's workforce, now among the nation's least educated and poorest.

The 180-acre soon-to-open facility between Centennial Drive and 13th Avenue, just south of Grangeville Boulevard, is forecasted to push young adults and high school students to enroll in college-level courses, be they in nursing or agriculture or law enforcement, careers that can secure middle-class earnings for those armed with a degree.

Now Kings County, isolated by a sea of farmland, is miles away from the nearest full-fledged two-year and four-year college campuses. As a result, those without vehicles face an extra hurdle to earning a college degree, whether it's an associate degree or a bachelor's. The nearest doctoral-granting institution is UC Merced, hours north by car.

"When I grew up, if you didn't have a vehicle, you didn't go to college," said Joaquin Gonzales, mayor of Hanford.

But with the Joint Educational Center, Kings County residents will be a step closer to setting foot in a permanent college campus.

A college degree has mattered more than ever for securing a middle-class lifestyle. Those armed with a bachelor's earn roughly double that of those with only a high school diploma. That's a life-time earnings of about a $1 million more, which can significantly boost quality-of-life in health and education for the next generation.

"If you look at statistically in the nation, where you have a better educational level, you have higher-paying jobs," said Dan Chin, a councilman for Hanford.

The new COS campus will be a permanent facility, complete with state-of-the-art technology and lighting. Once complete, the site will share the 180-acre property with the Hanford Joint Union High School District's third high school campus and the city of Hanford. The high school is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2009 to accommodate Kings County's ballooning student population. And the college campus is forecasted to open in August 2010 to help quench the county's skyrocketing demand for higher education.

The vocational training center, slated to open in early 2009, will train individuals for industrial careers -- from welding to mechanics to electronics -- among the higher-paying jobs in Kings County. It would in turn help attract industrial employers, which would boost the number of well-paying jobs in the county.

Now the typical annual pay for a Kings County resident is $23,362, according to the 2007 census, the most recent statistic available. Retail and agriculture supply much of the low-wage work in the county, jobs that typically pay minimum wage, often times with no benefits. Low wages perpetuate a paycheck-to-paycheck existence, barely enough to meet the cost of renting an apartment, driving a car and buying food, especially at a time when inflation has leaped to the highest level in decades.

"We have enough fast-food restaurants in town," said Dave Thomas, councilman for Hanford. "We need more well-paying jobs. People that work in hotels can't afford to stay in them. We have people working in grocery stores that can't afford to shop there. Lots of people have two jobs just to stay broke. It's a shame."

But the Joint Educational Center should help cushion the economic blow that many face in the county at a time when a premium has been placed on college degrees.

"The low wages in the county have to do with our uneducated workforce," Chin said. "The bottom line is employers look for an educated skill set. And we lack that as a county. We need to do a better job to produce high-paying jobs. Employers aren't looking for cheap labor. They're looking for skilled labor."

Thomas agrees.

"Well-paying jobs require a good education," Thomas said. "Businesses would rather move to an area with more educated people. If everybody in Hanford had a degree, the properties here would go up."

Roughly a third of Kings County's population dropped out of high school, and only about 12 percent of the county's adults earned a bachelor's. Only areas near the Mexican border, as well as parts of Central Valley, have educational levels as low as Kings County.

But the Joint Educational Center should sharply increase the percentage of college graduates in the county, officials say.

"The center will increase the number of students going to college," said Marcie Buford, councilwoman for Hanford. "It's easier for high school students to take college courses because they can see that they can succeed. I expect there will be enough integration for high school students to move into those COS classes."

But attending college isn't easy when the cost of higher education has skyrocketed, increasing at a faster clip than inflation during the past few decades, even surpassing the rate of health care.

"Lots of people in Kings County want to go to school, but they can't afford it," Thomas said. "Lots of people would love to go to college, but it's too hard. As a result, they just work."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2423.