College for All Act presents promise

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other democratic heavyweights joined forces on April 3 to introduce the College for All Act, a bill that establishes free public colleges and universities for students with family incomes under $125,000, increases funding for federal work-study, makes community college free and lowers student loan interest rates. While the bill is not likely to pass due to current state of Congress, this action demonstrates the progressive commitment to higher education accessibility while revealing the work that still needs to be done under the Trump administration.

Because millennials comprise a larger share of liberal voters, and Democratic politicians have begun to cater their policies toward this young voting bloc. With rising student debt and increasing cost of higher education, 2016 presidential hopefuls Sanders and Hillary Clinton’s education bills appealed to many millennial voters prior to the election. This bill, in contrast to Trump’s education cuts, aims to garner support and excitement from progressives, yet still falls short.

Nearly 50 years ago, only a quarter of middle-class workers had beyond a high school education, but today about 60 percent of jobs in the U.S. economy require higher education. As lower-skilled jobs are increasingly shipped overseas, the skills required by American employers have greatly increased. This, in turn, creates a larger wage gap and perpetuates the cycle of income inequality.

If President Donald Trump truly wants to employ Americans and create jobs, investment in education and making higher education a reality is an absolute necessity. Realistically, the jobs that have already been sent overseas are not coming back and cries from the President to “take back the jobs” have little to no realistic possibility. As Trump should be able to understand, given his history of managing a multination corporation that profits from the international labor that he condemns, it makes little business sense for American companies to “bring back our jobs.”

Instead, Trump must focus on the development of skill sets that employers require and need. Instead of harkening back to a nostalgic past where blue collar jobs dominated the economy, our government has a responsibility to fill the gaps between the skills of our population and the necessities of the business sector. The jobs don’t need to be created — they’re already here.

There are a few different solutions to the skills deficit that is plaguing our work force today. The first is a bill such as the one Sanders and Warren proposed, focusing on improving the higher education that currently exists. Cutting student loans interest rates and funding federal grants are absolutely crucial. This not only has a positive impact on closing the skills deficit, but it also upholds the fundamental principle of a highly educated citizenry upholding democracy. Yet, like many other planks in Sander’s platform, this bill remains impossible to realize in today’s political climate.

Another avenue to close this skills gap is to invest in more specialized programs such as the J.P. Morgan “New Skills at Work” Program, a $250 million initiative to help train people for specific jobs and programs. Deficits are especially prominent in fields such as science, technology and mathematics, which need increased training even for graduates of elite higher institutions. Vocational training programs may be a way to directly impact lower-income and less accessible areas. Though they may not provide the same intellectual breadth that universities and colleges pride themselves on, apprenticeship-centered and skills-based trainings would allow direct employment opportunities. These programs would come at a lower cost to taxpayers, and would be a more targeted way to approach the issue.

A bill such as the College for All Act is more about placing education back on our nation’s set of priorities. Additionally, direct programs and pre-professional academies may have a short-term and more immediate impact. These type of programs can indicate the beginning of compromise between bipartisan politicians and can begin the journey of making education a non-partisan education.

It’s time to double down on the notion that education is a human right.