American Workforce Development

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, as Ms. Foxx has said, we, right now, have the lowest unemployment in years. I think we are doing all we can to improve America's climate. Our taxes are lower. Our regulatory agencies, I think, are the most pro-freedom, pro-business we have had in years.

But the biggest problem that I find again and again, as I go around my district--and I should point out that Wisconsin's Sixth Congressional District has more manufacturing jobs in it than any other district in the country--is that we can't find enough people to work. A little bit of that problem is due to the government competing with the private sector and providing people compensation for not working at all. But a lot of the problem is that our educational system has let America down in that they have turned their back on skills-based training.

I think the number one thing holding back America's industry manufacturing sector right now is a lack of people with skills to do the job, not only manufacturing, but construction, as well. Again and again, we have a shortage of welders, we have a shortage of CNC operators, in construction, shortages all across the board.

If you look at the people who are still working frequently into their fifties and sixties, what is the reason? The reason is this myth out there, perpetrated in part by the mainstream media, but, in part, by the educational establishment, that you should get a vague 4-year degree--a degree in communication arts, a degree in psychology, something like that--which, too often, is leading to a low-paid job and a high-paid college debt.

If, instead, you would go to, let's say, a trade school--as I do in my district--you can have people who become apprentices and make money as they are earning. They can wind up making $70,000, or $80,000, or $90,000 before they are 25 years old, when some of their classmates are still ringing up the debt in the traditional college.

The Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, as we work through our bills, again and again is looking to fill this gap. We can no longer do this disservice to so many young people, encouraging them down an expensive path that does not lead to a well-paid job.

The future of America depends on its construction and its manufacturing. We cannot continue to be a great country if our factories do not get some of the best minds and hardest working people to do the work.

So I encourage anyone out there listening--particularly, anyone advising young people, be they professional guidance counselors who have so often let people down, or parents, or grandparents, or other mentors--look into skills-based education. Carefully compare how much people who take this route are making compared to people who go to a 4- year college. Look at how much debt they are ringing up compared to how much debt other people are ringing up.

Mr. Speaker, together, we can work as hard as we can to solve America's skills gap, which is absolutely necessary if the United States continues to become the manufacturing center of the world.

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