America’s education system has failed the nation by increasingly producing underemployed college graduates who lack essential job skills, according to a report published Wednesday.
The Bipartisan Policy Center’s analysis of federal data noted that half of all bachelor’s program graduates between 2012 and 2021 were underemployed a year later, working off their school debt in low-paying jobs that did not require their degrees.
Of that group, nearly 3 in 4 remained underemployed a decade after graduation. And just 61% of those who started four-year degrees in 2019 completed them within six years, adding to the over 37 million Americans who dropped out of college.
As a result, Democrats and Republicans at the think tank warned of a crisis of confidence in the value of a degree. They cited Gallup polling that found just 35% of adults believed a college education was “very important” last year, down from 75% in 2010.
“Employers report persistent difficulty finding qualified workers, while millions of Americans struggle to navigate unclear pathways to good jobs,” said Deval Patrick, co-chair of the center’s Commission on the American Workforce and a former Democratic governor of Massachusetts.
Bill Haslam, a commission co-chair and former Republican governor of Tennessee, flagged a need for “rapid adaptation” to artificial intelligence.
“States and employers are already innovating, but without a strategy and coordinated action, we will fall further behind in competitiveness, and too many families will miss out on opportunity,” Mr. Haslam said.
The report urges Congress to create a “shared national strategy,” including an advisory council and data system that can coordinate state and private-sector partnerships.
It flags apprenticeship and vocational programs as keys to supply fast-growing workforce needs in construction, science, and technology.
“This report verifies what we have heard for years — skyrocketing tuition costs and degrees that don’t lead to jobs have left many graduates worse off than if they never went to college,” said Rep. Tim Walberg, Michigan Republican and chair of the House Workforce and Education Committee, in an email.
“Our Committee has been working diligently not only to bring down the cost of higher education, but also to bridge the gap between the skills being taught in schools and the needs of our workforce,” he added.
Illustrating this need, the report warns that the U.S.-born labor force shed 73,000 workers between the last three months of 2019 and the first half of 2024.
Over the same period, the foreign-born workforce grew by 3.77 million people, making up all of the labor market’s growth.
The center’s analysis of federal data found this growth especially concentrated in the IT, construction, and medical industries. For example, foreign-born workers made up 18% of all health care employees, including 1 in 4 doctors and 1 in 5 registered nurses.
The report noted that China in 2020 granted nearly 2 million first college degrees in science and engineering, compared to 900,000 in the U.S.
Meanwhile, U.S. reading and math scores have plunged, and working adults are less likely to earn more than their parents than at any time since the 1940s.
’It is no longer the 1990s’
The report comes as the White House and several states have enacted policies to promote some of the same goals.
In an email, an Education Department spokesperson referred The Washington Times to a workforce training partnership the federal agency launched with the Labor and Commerce departments last year.
Billed as a national “talent strategy,” the initiative pledges to build “an AI-driven economy” by redirecting funds to expand registered apprenticeship and trade programs.
In California, the nation’s largest state, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has required AI literacy instruction in all K-12 schools.
Lance Izumi, who served as a California education official under Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, expressed optimism that both sides could get behind Wednesday’s report.
“It is no longer the 1990s, and high schools need to change if they are to assist students and improve the economy,” said Mr. Izumi, an education analyst at the free-market Pacific Research Institute.
However, some higher education advocates pushed back on the suggestion that high schools focus less on college preparation.
“This report makes some strong, common-sense recommendations,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor in the history of education at the University of Pennsylvania. “But I also worry that an exclusive focus on vocational preparation in K-12 schools might diminish their civic function.”
Dick Startz, an educational economist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, expressed doubt in the willingness of federal lawmakers to adopt the recommendations.
“Education used to be a bipartisan goal,” Mr. Startz said. “We need to return to that path.”
Universities have proven slow to adapt to the changing workforce.
On Tuesday, a survey from the trade publication Inside Higher Ed found most college presidents unhappy with a Trump administration policy ending federal funding for low-paying degree paths.
At the same time, more than half of the 430 presidents surveyed acknowledged that AI literacy was not widespread on their campus and that higher education was not prepared to handle the technology.
“While most respondents are critical of the Trump administration’s actions, it’s notable that many of them agree with some of its goals,” said Steven McGuire, a fellow at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a liberal arts advocacy group. “University leaders, including their governing boards, could do a lot of good by addressing such areas of agreement on their own.”
