\n<\/p>\n
A coalition of more than 100 congressional Democrats\u2019 vision for education policy puts a big focus on getting students ready for the workforce\u2014even if they decide not to attend college.<\/p>\n
The document, released Friday by the New Democrat Coalition, a group of center-left Democrats, calls for steps such as exposing young people to \u201copportunities in the building and construction trades to destigmatize that very lucrative job pathway\u201d and expanding partnerships with businesses and labor organizations so that prospective employees can \u201cearn while [they] learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The blueprint may foreshadow how lawmakers in the coalition\u2014some of whom represent competitive districts\u2014will talk about education on the campaign trail as the November midterm election approaches. <\/p>\n
Democrats are trying to retake the U.S. House of Representatives where Republicans currently hold a slim majority.<\/p>\n
The blueprint\u2019s emphasis on career training rather than college represents a U-turn from former President Barack Obama\u2019s goal that the United States have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 and the Biden administration\u2019s push to forgive college-loan debt.<\/p>\n
What it does do is build on the policy direction taken more recently by governors from both parties, including Democrats who have been politically successful in swing states such as Pennsylvania\u2019s Josh Shapiro.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifty percent of jobs need more than a high school degree, less than a college degree, and we have to change how we\u2019re providing that education to fit workforce needs,\u201d said Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., who helps lead the coalition\u2019s policy development on apprenticeships and training.<\/p>\n
Some lawmakers have been slow to understand the importance of elevating noncollege pathways, Hoyle added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve stigmatized anything but college degrees, like somehow an apprenticeship program or certification, stackable certifications are a lesser option,\u201d said Hoyle, who was herself the first in her family to graduate from college. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of people that are here in Congress that come from college-educated families, upper-middle-class families. They\u2019re not first-generation college students.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has talked about apprenticeships and workforce training in a way that resonates with some swing voters, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve successfully talked about it,\u201d she said of Republicans. <\/p>\n
In her view, though, Trump\u2019s move to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and shift key K-12 programs to the Department of Labor is part of a broad play to \u201cbreak public education\u201d\u2014not to elevate workforce training.<\/p>\n
Emphasizing education\u2019s role in workforce development is a \u201csmart transition\u201d for Democrats, said Adam Kissel, a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation\u2019s Center on Education Policy. <\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica needs lots more nurses, lots more welders, electricians, plumbers, and by diverting students who would be talented in those areas away from practical pre-professional trades, we\u2019re putting people on the wrong path,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He thinks the Trump administration\u2019s move to put K-12 programs in the Labor Department was a key step toward bringing more of a workforce focus to federal education programs. <\/p>\n
Despite vehement disagreement over that move, Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D-Md., a former social studies teacher who helps lead the coalition\u2019s work on education, sees potential for bipartisanship on career training. <\/p>\n
For instance, he co-sponsored a bill with Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, that would help small businesses connect with career and technical education programs and their graduates. The measure has passed the House and is awaiting Senate action.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether we\u2019re in the majority or not, that\u2019s actually one of the places I think Republicans and Democrats can and should come together,\u201d Olszewski said.<\/p>\n
The blueprint comes as the public increasingly questions the value of a traditional four-year college degree.<\/p>\n
A plurality of adults\u201449 percent\u2014believe a four-year degree is less important in getting a well-paid job than it was 20 years ago, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey.<\/p>\n
Beyond career development, the coalition\u2019s blueprint calls for protecting funding for key federal K-12 programs, including Title I grants to help schools educate children in poverty and state grants for students in special education financed under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.<\/p>\n
And it seeks to help Pell Grants, which help low-income students cover the cost of higher education, keep up with the rising price of college. It calls forincreasing the awards\u2014which currently max out at $7,395 annually\u2014by an unspecified amount of money and indexing them to inflation.<\/p>\n
The plan also prioritizes bolstering the teaching profession, including through apprenticeship programs that Democrats believe could give prospective teachers classroom experience without accumulating \u201cmassive debt.\u201d Apprentices are paid while they work in the classroom. Today, almost every state has a teacher-apprenticeship program registered with the federal Labor Department, since Tennessee became the first state with one in 2022.<\/p>\n
And it calls for incentivizing schools to adopt what the blueprint deems \u201cevidence-based\u201d practices, namely high-dosage tutoring and instruction aligned with the science of reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A coalition of more than 100 congressional Democrats\u2019 vision for education policy puts a big focus on getting students ready for the workforce\u2014even if they decide not to attend college. The document, released Friday by the New Democrat Coalition, a group of center-left Democrats, calls for steps such as exposing young people to \u201copportunities in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[5357,496,1936,580,1811,328,9189,4657],"class_list":{"0":"post-40963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-democratic","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-group","11":"tag-issue","12":"tag-major","13":"tag-policy","14":"tag-thinks","15":"tag-winning"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}