Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has held his job for less than a month, so it’s probably too early for him to think about running for president. But it’s not too soon for other governors considering a White House run to do what he did with a splash on his first full day: open up thousands of state jobs to people who don’t have four-year college degrees but do have relevant skills, training or experience.
Democratic and Republican governors should all do this, because it’s commonsense policy. In fact, the first governor to go there (by his account) was a Republican now mulling a presidential campaign: former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who dropped the college requirement for thousands of state jobs last March.
The shift toward more flexible hiring standards is taking off in the private sector, and now there’s movement toward it by both parties.
[This is a good first step to ending credentialism in general, and for good reason. Most jobs outside of STEM, Academia/scholastic, and legal fields don’t truly need a four-to-seven-year course of study. For decades, college degrees were useful as a way to measure discipline and drive, but even that value has largely dissipated in an Academia bubble that barely imposes discipline in education. The dirty little secret is that most jobs that “require” a degree use on-the-job training and have little to do with college courses in day-to-day work. The risk for Democrats in Jill’s argument is that it will undermine the party’s support of Academia and that bubble, which will alienate those thought leaders. Republicans really have almost no downside, however, and should rush to embrace this effort. — Ed]
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