When President Biden this year told a crowd of union workers that every American should have a path to a good career — “whether they go to college or not” — Tyler Wissman listened.
As the father of someone with a high school education, Mr. Wissman said he rarely hears politicians say people can get ahead without a college degree.
“For my 31 years, I always thought, ‘You have to go to college if you want to get a job,’” says Wissman, who is training as an apprentice at the Institute of Perfection of Commerce in Philadelphia. where the president spoke in March, said.
As Mr. Biden campaigned for re-election, he was trying to close an education gap that is reshaping the US political landscape. Although both political parties see education as an important factor for advancement and opportunity, college-educated voters today are more likely to identify as Democrats, while those with college degrees are more likely to identify as Democrats. voters without a college degree were more likely to support Republicans.
That increasingly apparent split has huge implications for Mr. Biden as he tries to expand the coalition of voters that got him into the White House in the first place. In 2020, Mr. Biden won 61 percent of college graduates, but only 45% of voters don’t have a four-year college degree — and only 33% of white voters don’t have a four-year college degree.
David Axelrod, a top adviser to former President Barack Obama, said: “The Democrats have become an international, college-educated party even though it considers itself the party of the working people.
Mr. Axelrod added that the perception that Wall Street was bailed out during the 2008 recession while the middle class was left to struggle had deepened the rift between Democrats and working-class workers. uneducated hand.
The election of Donald J. Trump, who exploited many of those grievances for political gain, trend consolidation.
“Working-class voters, not just white working-class voters, have the feeling that the party has nothing to do with them or look down on people who do manual work, work for them, or do other things. what not to do. Mr. Axelrod said.
Now, in speeches around the country, Mr. Biden rarely talks about his signature piece of legislation, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, without emphasizing that it would lead to trade apprenticeships and eventually union work.
“Give every American a path to a good career whether they go to college or not, like the one you started here,” Biden said at the commerce institute, referring to the program. its apprenticeship.
The White House says apprenticeship programs, which often combine some classroom learning with paid work experience, are crucial to overcoming a tight labor market and ensuring that an adequate workforce is available. move to turn the president’s broad spending plan into roads and bridges. and electric vehicle chargers.
Mr. Biden has offered incentives to create apprenticeship programs, with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for states expanding such programs.
“Biden was the first president to reduce the need for a college degree since World War II,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian.
Mr. Biden’s approach is a shift from previous Democratic administrations, which have focused more on college as a path to better pay and promotion. Mr. Obama, in his first joint session of Congress, said that the United States should “once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”
Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, began a campaign to encourage Americans to go to college, at one point suggesting in a satirical video that life without a college education is like see dry pictures.
Democrats have long taken a cautious stance on the issue. Mr. Biden has always been supportive of higher education, especially community colleges, and one of his most ambitious proposals as president is a $400 billion program to write off student loan debt up to $20,000 for individuals earning less than $125,000 a year. Republicans have described the proposal as a gift to the elite.
Mitch Landrieu, the president’s infrastructure coordinator, said Biden has always believed college is important, but “it’s absolutely not the only way to build the economy.”
“He saw that such men and women were left behind for a long time,” Mr. Landrieu said of those without university degrees. “They have always been part of the Democratic Party. Only recently did that change.”
The change coincided with a harsh political reality.
The battleground states that voted for the winning candidate in both 2016 and 2020 both rank higher on average in terms of education, which means Biden’s effort to attract those without a degree grants can make a real difference in 2024, according to Doug Sosnik, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton.
“You need to both try to minimize the damage to voters who don’t have a college degree, and try to take advantage of states with educated voters,” Sosnik said. “You can’t just rely on the division of qualifications to win. But that’s part of the recipe.”
A similar dynamic is playing out across the country.
Governor Josh Shapiro, Democrat of Pennsylvania, has released campaign ads focused on extending apprenticeships and removing college degree requirements for thousands of government jobs. state government – a commitment he made well when he first took office. Republicans in Maryland, Alaska and Utah have eliminated similar degree requirements.
Governor Spencer Cox, Republican of Utah, said he not only hopes to address the stigma against those who don’t go to college, but also appease employers increasingly worried about persistent labor shortages. persistent.
“We couldn’t do any of this if we didn’t have a workforce,” Mr Cox said.
Christopher Montague, 29, an Air Force veteran from suburban Philadelphia who trained as an apprentice in drywall instead of college, said he has noticed the “waking up” of politicians on the positive side of pursuing training in trade.
“There is money to work with your hands,” he said.
At the Institute for Perfection of Commerce in Philadelphia, instructors say they’ve noticed increased demand. Drew Heverly, an industrial drawing instructor, says he usually has 10 apprentices working on construction projects in “a good year”.
This year, he sent nearly 40 apprentices to work on projects in Philadelphia funded in part by Mr. Biden’s infrastructure package.
“We have certainly seen strong growth and demand for manpower,” said Mr. Heverly.
The prospect of pursuing an education in commerce while monetizing projects has also gained momentum among high school students, according to the Institute of Complete Commerce’s recruitment coordinator, Tureka Dixon. Community colleges in the area are even reaching out to see if they can form joint partnerships to train students in commerce.
“Whether it’s cranes, tall buildings, bridges, it’s commercial work,” Ms. Dixon said as apprentices in hard hats listened to lessons on how to remove lead. “It is manual labor. It’s a country, so I think people need to be more careful.”
Mark Smith, 30, who is an apprentice at the academy, said an apprenticeship isn’t a backup position for him – it’s a career he loves.
Mr. Smith said: “School is not for me. “I joined the Marines and then I started right into this. For me it was a waste of money.”
Mr. Wissman, who has never voted in a presidential election and identifies as an independent, said he was still unsure whether recognition from the White House would make him ultimately vote in the election. 2024 or not.
Mr. Wissman, whose girlfriend is pregnant with their second child, said: ‘I wanted someone in the office to help put the food on the table. “In the end, that’s all that’s going to happen.”
