Published September 12, 2022
The Republican Party will have to shift its economic thinking if it is truly going to become a multiethnic, working-class party. A new bill from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) that would offer federal scholarships for postsecondary vocational education is a good example of how the party can do this.
Cotton’s American Workforce Act, derived from a concept developed by the reform-oriented American Compass think tank, works like this: Every citizen with a high school diploma or GED, but without a college degree, can receive a $9,000 federal voucher to pursue “workforce contracts” with employers. Those contracts would guarantee a full-time job to trainees, coupled with skilled, educational workforce training. The voucher could be used to pay the employer for the costs of that training, up to $1,500 a month. Employers would receive a $1,000 payment for every new employee it hires for a full-time job following completion of the training.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
Image from Gage Skidmore on Wikimedia via Creative Commons 2.0
Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
