I would really love to see the US reform include something similar to the German education system (If I understand it correctly), where learning a trade or starting an apprenticeship is built into the high school system for all students, so there’s a track directly into a career for all students, and a Plan B for college bound students if that doesn’t work out.
The narrative of the ‘absolute necessity’ of a college degree was getting pushed real hard when I was in high school about ten years ago, along with the doom-and-gloom outlook on trades (though to be fair we got hit hard in SE Michigan back in 2008-2010 with the double whammy of the housing collapse and auto bankruptcies. It was hard to be optimistic about things back then). That said, I’ve wished for a few years I could travel back in time to suggest to my 18 year old self that going straight to university isn’t going to be that great of a financial decision.
