Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, for decades, Americans have been sold the line that a college degree is a prerequisite to success and economic mobility. This can be discouraging to the vast majority of the American workforce without a baccalaureate degree. However, study after study shows that this narrative no longer holds true. In the face of rising college costs, a new model for stability and success is available. It celebrates hands-on job experience. A new study of 65 million American wage earners by The Burning Glass Institute, an independent nonprofit research center, found that by the age of 40, one in five workers with only a high school diploma earned above the median income for college graduates--$70,000--without the drag-down effect of a college degree. Even more impressive is the nonprofit's finding that 5 percent of them, a cool 2 million Americans, earned six-figure salaries. How did they get started on these successful careers? One factor is what Burning Glass calls launchpad jobs. These jobs give high school students and graduates real-world, wage-earning experience that develop skills they can build careers upon. The jobs are widely varied: telemarketer, computer support specialist, software developer, flight attendant, commercial diver, and quarry rock splitter. They all offer this new route to success. A recent New York Times article profiled two young people whose success is indicative of the value of these launchpad jobs.…”