ROULHAC ENTERPRISES

By: Kevin Carey

Kevin Carey is the policy director of the Education Sector, a research group.

March 1, 2012

“There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to test that aren't taught by some liberal college professor,’’ Rick Santorum said. The important word in that sentence is skills. It is very difficult to earn a decent living in the modern economy without a concrete set of skills and a credential to back them up. And the more complicated the world gets, the more complex skills the job market requires.

Take auto mechanics. According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, in the early 1970s, most auto mechanics had never finished high school. One in three had a high school diploma, and a scant 7 percent had been to college or earned a degree. Then automobiles became increasingly complicated. So auto mechanics began going to school to learn advanced skills and get credentials. By the late 2000s, only one in five had dropped out of high school. By contrast, more than one in three had gone to college.

The more complicated the world gets, the more complex skills the job market requires.

Large parts of the economy are evolving this way. We also live in a mobile society where workers need credible evidence of their skills and abilities to get a job. When financial and labor markets convulse and people are thrown out of work, they need new skills to stay employed. Unfortunately, college is getting more expensive and many institutions that serve adult, nontraditional and working students are starved for funds. That’s why the Obama administration has worked to boost need-based financial aid and invest in community colleges.

Not everyone is willing or able to get a bachelor’s degree. But everyone should at least have the chance to try. After all, well-off students from upper-middle-class suburbs are going to college one way or another. It’s the middle- and lower-income students and working adults who are most at risk of being left behind. When politicians attack the very idea of promoting more higher education, good, decent men and women may be prevented from getting the skills and training they need.

Join Room for Debate on Facebook and follow updates on twitter.com/roomfordebate.