The new manufacturing economy, concluded the MIT Task Force on Production in the
Innovation Economy, requires “training for jobs that demand new combinations of book
learning, hands-on experience, proficiency with digital technology, and ability to manage
relationships face to face and with distant collaborators.”^202 This is not what our
educational system typically delivers.
Vocational training was an integral part of the high school curriculum until the 1950s, and
all students were routinely taught (on a gender-segregated basis) job-ready skills along
with other subjects. In the 1950s, tracking emerged that, in theory, separated students
according to ability; in fact, less affluent students and students of color were tracked into
vocational programs that were seen as strictly second class.^203 The response was to
abolish vocational programs, on the theory that every child deserved the best—to go to
college.
This strategy was self-delusion. Not everyone wants to go to college, and even those
who’d like to go can’t always garner the resources to accomplish this goal. Two-thirds of
Americans don’t graduate from college, as we’ve seen. The decline of vocational
education has meant that American employers can’t depend on a stream of employees
with the specific skills they need. Employers have responded by “up-credentialing”—
requiring college degrees for jobs that do not require college-delivered skills—as a way to
weed out those who lacked the smarts or self-discipline to complete a college degree.
This up-credentialing has two bad effects. Using college as a proxy for diligence and
smarts, of course, disadvantages working-class kids who are smart and diligent but not
college grads. It also means that a significant proportion of college grads do jobs that
don’t really require college. As a result, a quarter of college grads and advanced degree
holders will work for a lower median wage than associate degree holders.^204
Too often today, college education serves as a finishing school for elite kids, who go
there at 18 and study full time until age 22, building the credentials and entrepreneurial
networks that will see them through life. This works for elite kids but not for many
working-class kids. For those who do attend college, significant changes are needed.
Arizona State University President Michael Crow has led the way in making the
resources of a major research university more user-friendly for children of the working
class. ASU now provides online courses and scheduling options that fit better with
working-class lives. Online students typically take only two or three classes per semester,
and most courses cover a semester’s worth of material in just seven and a half weeks.
ASU provides a mentor to help students plan and navigate their college careers, which
levels the playing field by providing nonelite students with the kind of advice and savvy
- Don’t They Understand That Manufacturing Jobs Aren’t Coming Back?