Now more than ever, higher education is one of the most important tools many people have as they seek a bright economic future.
The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce studies the relationship between education and employment. In 2014, the center released a report on the future of the United States job market. It found that by the year 2020, 65 percent of all U.S. jobs will require workers to have some kind of education or training after they finish high school.
But the Department of Education reports that younger Americans often have difficulty meeting that requirement. It reported that in 2015, only about 42 percent of people between 18 and 24 years of age were in a
postsecondary
degree
study program. Also, only about 60 percent of college students who started a four-year degree program in 2008 completed its requirements within six years.
So how might the United States better educate its population? Some experts believe community college is the answer.
Community colleges have long been the way for Americans facing economic or other barriers to get a college education. In 1947, the U.S. government called on states to each create their own system of public, two-year
institutions
to serve communities in need. These schools offer classes costing less than other colleges or universities. And they often have no
academic
requirements for students who attend.
Mike Krause is the executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. His group supports the expansion of higher education across the state. Krause says that many Tennesseans see any college program as something that is not doable for them.
Talk Poverty, a research group, reports that about 16 percent of Tennessee's population lives below the poverty line – the amount of money needed to pay for life's necessities. Krause argues that with college costs reaching record levels, many people have seen low-skilled jobs in fields like manufacturing as their best path forward.
"The old way of thinking was, ‘Not everybody needs to go to college,'" he told VOA. "And also, a lot of students probably counted themselves out because they said something like, ‘Well, I'm not college material because my family can't
afford
it.' The reality is, not being able to afford college is a lot different than not being able to succeed in college."
Krause notes that many American businesses have taken their manufacturing jobs to other countries where workers are paid less. Also, machines have replaced human laborers in some positions. So people still working in manufacturing must possess more high-level training. A working knowledge of technology is helpful now in many jobs that may not have required a four-year college degree in the past.
Krause says these changes in the American labor market began to worry Tennessee's leadership. So in 2014, they created the Tennessee Promise program. It provides recent high school
graduates
two years of free classes at any of the state's community or technical colleges.
The goal is to make sure 55 percent of Tennesseans have earned some form of postsecondary
certification
by 2025. And earlier this year, the state began offering free community college to older adults as well to help reach this goal.
Two other states, Rhode Island and Oregon, have also started offering free community college to their citizens. And a growing number of other experts say community college could be the next best way to make more Americans competitive in the modern workforce.
Jeff Strohl, director of research at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
Jeff Strohl is the director of research at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. He says during the economic recession 10 years ago, many people began to question the value of a traditional four-year degree. Families were paying more and more money for their children's education. But many recent graduates found there were fewer jobs available, especially ones that would pay well enough to cover the costs of student debt.
