J. Scott Applewhite/AP
- College degree requirements lock millions of Americans out of jobs.
- Persistent labor shortages have caused some states and companies to drop degree requirements.
- US Rep. Angie Craig dropped degree requirements for her staff and hopes to lead by example.
US Rep. Angie Craig announced Monday that she's dropped college degree requirements for all positions in her offices, all the way up to chief of staff.
The decision was personal, the Minnesota Democrat told Insider.
"I saw my mother, you know, claw and scratch her way over nine years to a college degree," attending night school to become a teacher while raising three kids as a single mom, Craig told Insider.
A bachelor's degree has become a common requirement and barrier for landing US jobs. After the Great Recession, degree requirements locked out nearly two-thirds of American workers from millions of good-paying jobs that didn't actually call for a four-year college education, according to a 2017 report.
However, persistent labor shortages have helped call such degree requirements into question. In the last few years, a number of states have dropped degree requirements for jobs in the civil service, and companies have created training courses to recruit workers. Craig said she is the first member of Congress to officially drop degree requirements for congressional staff. She hopes her congressional colleagues and the private sector will follow her lead.
"My oldest son, instead of going the four-year route, he went to trade school. And he's a machinist," she said, adding, "I do see that there are potentially going to be some limitations."
"We ought to be ensuring that every young person out there, or every single mom or dad out there, has a chance to make a good life and have a career for themselves and for their kids," she said.
In 2021, Craig introduced bipartisan legislation to expand and support outreach to students and employers about apprenticeship colleges. In January, she secured $1.5 million for the city of Shakopee, Minnesota, to construct a facility providing postsecondary education opportunities, job training, and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Now, Craig has turned her sights on opening opportunities within her own office.
"It's almost like a default these days on job descriptions where, you know, it just lists bachelor's degree as a requirement," Craig said.
By announcing that she's dropped bachelor's degrees requirements for her office, "I'm just trying to get people to think more broadly about their hiring pools and that, you know, you're probably throwing out some great people," she said.
Long before Craig made the announcement, she had scrapped "the bachelor's requirement for a farmer who farms 1200 acres in my district, who's my ag policy liaison in Minnesota," she said.
"Four-year university is great for some students, and it's certainly a path that young people could choose," she said, but "what better experience to represent my office and to work with stakeholders on ag than someone actually farming?"
It wasn't until Craig was hiring a staff assistant recently that she wondered, "Why as a default do we have that requirement to begin with?"
Craig said she just considered what the entry-level role actually required: greeting people in the lobby of the congressional office, answering the phone, and talking with constituents about their concerns.
"It occurred to me that actually the ideal background for someone who is a staff assistant is retail or customer service experience," Craig said, so on the job description "we actually put that customer service or retail experience is preferred."
"There are some jobs where you do have to have specialized training, no doubt," Craig said, noting her son had to learn in school how to operate machines, "but there are others that you can widen that applicant pool for."
"If you're a farmer and you apply to be my ag liaison, then I can guarantee you you're gonna be on equal footing with recent college graduates," she said.
Craid didn't stop at dropping degree requirements for entry-level positions.
"I decided to eliminate it for all of the positions," she said. "For other folks who come into my team, you know, I want them to be able to see that, you know, there's an opportunity to learn and grow if they're talented at their current job."
Craig hopes it will cause the private sector to rethink degree requirements.
"The number one concern right now with employers is workforce — not adding enough people for the jobs that actually exist," she said.
"Every job description should consider: Does this job actually need a four-year degree," or is relevant experience sufficient, she said.
"It is going to take time to have attitudes change," she said, but "I'm out to change the hiring culture across our country."
Congress can play a role too, she said.
"This should be a bipartisan opportunity here to address what employers tell me is one of their" top concerns, she said, urging Congress to address the workforce shortage, open up the applicant pool, and grant dollars for public-private partnerships that train workers for in-demand jobs.
"With the workforce shortage that we have, I think that it could actually be very beneficial to the economy," she noted.