A coalition of more than 100 congressional Democrats’ vision for education policy puts a big focus on getting students ready for the workforce—even 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 “opportunities in the building and construction trades to destigmatize that very lucrative job pathway” and expanding partnerships with businesses and labor organizations so that prospective employees can “earn while [they] learn.”
The blueprint may foreshadow how lawmakers in the coalition—some of whom represent competitive districts—will talk about education on the campaign trail as the November midterm election approaches.
Democrats are trying to retake the U.S. House of Representatives where Republicans currently hold a slim majority.
The blueprint’s emphasis on career training rather than college represents a U-turn from former President Barack Obama’s goal that the United States have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 and the Biden administration’s push to forgive college-loan debt.
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’s Josh Shapiro.
“Fifty percent of jobs need more than a high school degree, less than a college degree, and we have to change how we’re providing that education to fit workforce needs,” said Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., who helps lead the coalition’s policy development on apprenticeships and training.
Some lawmakers have been slow to understand the importance of elevating noncollege pathways, Hoyle added.
“We’ve stigmatized anything but college degrees, like somehow an apprenticeship program or certification, stackable certifications are a lesser option,” said Hoyle, who was herself the first in her family to graduate from college.
“We have a lot of people that are here in Congress that come from college-educated families, upper-middle-class families. They’re not first-generation college students.”
President Donald Trump has talked about apprenticeships and workforce training in a way that resonates with some swing voters, she added.
“They’ve successfully talked about it,” she said of Republicans.
In her view, though, Trump’s 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 “break public education”—not to elevate workforce training.
Career training is an area of bipartisan agreement
Emphasizing education’s role in workforce development is a “smart transition” for Democrats, said Adam Kissel, a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Center on Education Policy.
“America 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’re putting people on the wrong path,” he said.
He thinks the Trump administration’s 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.
Despite vehement disagreement over that move, Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D-Md., a former social studies teacher who helps lead the coalition’s work on education, sees potential for bipartisanship on career training.
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.
“Whether we’re in the majority or not, that’s actually one of the places I think Republicans and Democrats can and should come together,” Olszewski said.
The blueprint comes as the public increasingly questions the value of a traditional four-year college degree.
A plurality of adults—49 percent—believe 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.
Blueprint aims to bolster the teaching profession, though it’s light on specifics
Beyond career development, the coalition’s 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.
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 for increasing the awards—which currently max out at $7,395 annually—by an unspecified amount of money and indexing them to inflation.
The plan also prioritizes bolstering the teaching profession, including through apprenticeship programs that Democrats believe could give prospective teachers classroom experience without accumulating “massive debt.” 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.
And it calls for incentivizing schools to adopt what the blueprint deems “evidence-based” practices, namely high-dosage tutoring and instruction aligned with the science of reading.
