Part of the answer lies in expanding training schools, apprenticeships, and non-college pathways. A four-year degree is valuable in many fields, but it shouldn’t be a prerequisite for every form of success. Students should feel free to choose the path that brings them closer to their goals—without being saddled with crippling debt.

If everyone who posted on social media about “bringing manufacturing back” threw on a hardhat tomorrow, it still wouldn’t be enough to fill the five million U.S. manufacturing jobs lost between 2000 and 2010. Nor would it solve the issue of an aging workforce retiring faster than new recruits can be trained. Right now, more than 800,000 U.S. manufa... See more