Across Pierce County, dedicated leaders and organizations are doing the heavy lifting of community transformation, often with resources that don’t match the scale of their mission.
From school districts stretching every dollar to community partners filling essential gaps, this work is vital, yet it frequently happens in isolation. When our efforts aren’t connected, our collective impact remains smaller than the energy we pour into it.
To build a better future together, we must first see the same picture together.
What’s at stake for families right now
In Washington, the value of a postsecondary credential is clear: fifteen years after high school, a diploma earner averages $52,000 annually, while those with a bachelor’s degree earn $90,000, and apprenticeship graduates reach $110,000. These aren’t just statistics. They are the foundation that shapes what kind of life our students can build.
In Pierce County, the stakes are even higher. With a cost of living 16% above the national average, the regional take-home pay feels closer to $61,000 in real purchasing power.
For families balancing immediate needs like childcare and car repairs against long-term goals like tuition, the gap between earnings and expenses is often the deciding factor. Bridging this gap is what ensures students can stay on the path toward a credential rather than stepping off to meet the demands of the month.
Resilience in our schools
Pierce County is home to innovative school districts, nationally recognized higher education institutions, a growing career and technical education ecosystem, and community organizations doing transformative work every day. This is the foundation we are building on.
Today, 45% of our residents hold a postsecondary credential, compared to a 55% statewide average. Our goal is 70%, a target that’s grounded in labor market projections for the kinds of jobs that provide stability.
To reach it, we must address the specific disparities in access. Attainment stands at 31% for Hispanic and Latino residents, 39% for Black residents, and 38% for men. This isn’t a lack of effort from our institutions. It’s that the scale of the work is bigger than any single institution can solve on its own.
Across our districts, educators and counselors are doing the daily work of guiding students toward financial aid completion and postsecondary enrollment. Their trend lines have held steady despite extraordinary disruptions, including pandemic recovery, budget constraints, and federal uncertainty. Maintaining stability in that context is a testament to the people inside these systems. Moving forward from here is the work that belongs to all of us.
The economic case for collective action
Pierce County’s economy has real strengths to build around. Government and healthcare together account for nearly 40% of the county’s jobs, with above-average wages. Transportation and warehousing added over 1,200 positions last year, the largest private-sector gain in the region. Professional and technical services average $96,000 annually. The jobs are here. The opportunity now is to build the pathways that connect our students to them.
At the same time, private employer establishments in Pierce County have declined 12.6% since 2020, compared to about 7% statewide and a nearly 19% increase nationally. The relationship is direct: more residents with credentials attract more employers, more employers strengthen the tax base, and a stronger tax base gets reinvested in the systems that produce credentials. Setting that cycle in motion is work that requires all of us moving in the same direction.
At the center of all of this are the young people we are building for. Roughly 14,000 young adults in Pierce County {ages 16 to 24) are currently neither in school or working, with the highest concentration between ages 19 and 21, the exact transition window where coordinated support matters most. This number has held steady since 2013. Not for lack of commitment across our community, but because commitment alone, without coordination, has a ceiling.
What happens when a community invests together
In King County, the Renton Promise offers a powerful example of what coordination can look like. By wrapping advising, navigation, and direct financial support around students at the moments they are most likely to disengage, Renton saw FAFSA completion climb from 44% to 65% and college enrollment reach 68%. Pierce County districts, in the same period, held steady around 35-40%.
Renton’s progress didn’t come from a single program or a top-down mandate. It came from intentional investments woven together by shared accountability between educators, advisors, community partners, and local government each contributing their piece. That is the model. Not one organization leading the charge, but a network of partners showing up at the right moments with the right supports and trusting the collective effort to hold.
Why 70% and why together
Seventy percent reflects the share of Washington jobs projected to require postsecondary education or training by 2032. Reaching this goal requires a network of small, agile working groups organized around specific challenges, accountable to each other and to the communities they serve.
We don’t have all the answers. We are building this openly, honest about what we don’t yet know. What we do have is a shared picture of where things stand, a community ready to act, and a belief that what Pierce County builds next will be shaped by the people who show up to build it.
This is the starting point. What comes next belongs to all of us.
