A startling transformation is underway, in the economy, in the culture, and among policymakers. The ironclad, bipartisan belief in college as the “ticket to the middle class,” in former President Barack Obama’s preferred phrase, that every child should go to college, that the public education system’s primary task is to prepare everyone for college, has begun to crumble.
As America awakens to the costs of offshoring and begins the task of reindustrialization, and as the largest technology companies place their bets on an unprecedented expansion of physical infrastructure to support their plans for artificial intelligence, the private sector, too, has discovered that new paths for workforce development are critical to their own success. Unlikely bedfellows from Silicon Valley, Wall Street, school boards, and union halls are coming together in search of new approaches.
