Ryan Dorsey

This op-ed was written by Roger Low, CEO of Colorado Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative (CEEMI), and Landon Mascareñaz, chair of Colorado’s community college system and Executive Advisor to ActivateWork’s Tech Talent Partnership. The article originally appeared in The Job by Work/Shift, a newsletter about the connections between education and work; read the original article here.

A new book has sparked debate about America’s future. “Abundance,” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, argues for “a liberalism that builds.” This case for “supply-side progressivism”— more homes, clean energy, and transit to lower costs and improve outcomes for middle-class Americans—contrasts with the zero-sum worldview of Trumpism, which scapegoats immigrants, demonizes decarbonization, and pushes austerity and tariffs.

As two Coloradans working to reform postsecondary education and workforce systems, we believe the “Abundance” lens also illuminates what’s broken in American higher education—and how we can fix it. For context, one of us, Landon Mascareñaz, chairs Colorado’s community college system, leading innovation efforts in our state. The other, Roger Low, founded and leads a nonprofit advocating for reforms to our higher education and workforce systems to measurably improve economic outcomes.

Just as we face a housing shortage, we also face a shortage of effective, accessible, and affordable pathways to economic mobility. While the traditional four-year degree path is beneficial for some students, we need more good options for America’s youth and young adults. Both of us believe updating our postsecondary system to reflect the real needs of today’s learners and labor market is overdue—and “abundance thinking” points the way.

As in the housing, transit, and clean energy sectors, in the face of an unacceptable status quo, we have to invest in more abundant postsecondary education options for more Americans, in order to rapidly build and scale an adaptive system that meets the evolving demands of our modern workforce.

America’s system centers on the bachelor’s degree, yet fails too many students. Only 60% of high schoolers enroll in college soon after graduation, and only 60% of those who do enroll complete a degree or credential within eight years. That means just one third of recent high school graduates earn a postsecondary credential—mostly bachelor’s degrees—and of those four-year graduates, nearly half hold a job a decade later that doesn’t actually necessitate a bachelor’s. While most bachelor’s degree-holders will out-earn those with only a high school diploma, some will not, and others will not out-earn them by enough to outrun crushing (and, too often, growing) student debt. These filters, stacked together, create a funnel-shaped system that only works for one in four students. Those odds get markedly worse for Black, Latino, and low-income learners.

At the same time, America faces a massive “middle skills” gap. One third to one half of jobs require education beyond high school but less than a four-year degree, yet only 13% of our workforce holds those credentials. Our education and training systems are misaligned with economic reality.

A clear majority of Americans now doubt the value of a degree, with skepticism highest among younger adults. The Trump administration has chosen to bully and threaten colleges. That’s abhorrent. The answer, however, is not simply to pour more money into the current model. Instead, we need a supply-side mindset: build more pathways that actually work for more students.

Countries like Switzerland and Germany offer instructive models. Their “dual, permeable” systems combine academic education with career and technical pathways that incorporate work-based learning, connect to real labor market demand—and allow students to move between them. While such systems aren’t copy-paste solutions, research and common sense suggest the U.S. can do far better.  

We need to build a wider, more inclusive array of pathways—especially those that equip students with in-demand skills and lead to good jobs without requiring a four-year degree.

Colorado is beginning to show what’s possible when we invest in workforce abundance. Gov. Polis’s $95M Opportunity Now initiative is scaling partnerships between training providers and employers. This includes programs like ActivateWork, a tuition-free IT bootcamp based on the nationally-proven Per Scholas model, shown by rigorous evaluations to meaningfully increase wages. It also funded efforts in rural communities, like Emergent Campus, which tap state and national investment to generate opportunities for upskilling and remote-work in rural counties in southern Colorado.

Meanwhile, Prosperity Denver Fund, a Denver sales tax-funded initiative, is expanding beyond college scholarships to reimburse short-term training programs with strong outcomes—offering higher reimbursement rates for stronger evidence of impact. Earlier this year, Colorado also partnered with Arnold Ventures to invest $20M in evidence-based higher education and workforce programs proven to lead to good jobs.

Our community colleges are evolving too. Several are implementing Accelerated Studies in Associate Programs (ASAP), proven to increase degree completion by 15 percentage points or more, and subsequently increase wages. Colorado’s expanding dual and concurrent enrollment initiatives—allowing students to earn college credit or begin pursuing postsecondary tracks in high school—are helping blur outdated lines between high school, college, and career.

These steps are promising—but we need a wider range of effective postsecondary models. To get there, we need more transparency about which ones deliver. We also need “outcomes abundance.” We must make accurate and user-friendly data about cost, earnings, and return on investment easily available for every college and short-term training pathway in a region. Learners—from high school seniors to working parents—must be able to compare options on a level playing field. Policymakers and funders need outcomes data to direct dollars to what works.

The Colorado Community College System’s recent strategic plan makes economic mobility our north star, and commits to generating—and crucially, measuring—living wages for many more of our students. But we’re not done. Making comprehensive, apples-to-apples outcome data ubiquitous remains critical.

Rather than scapegoating colleges or clinging to the status quo, we should seize this moment to unlock public dollars and public data to expand opportunity for all. Colorado has a chance to lead—and help shape a national movement—if we commit to postsecondary abundance.

Roger Low is the CEO & Founder of the Colorado Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative (CEEMI), a nonprofit that advocates for postsecondary reforms to measurably improve learner outcomes. He is also a Lakewood City Councilman.

Landon Mascareñaz is the chair of the Colorado State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education, and is the founding Executive Director of Courageous Colorado, working to convene, connect, and catalyze local democracy redesign. He is also an educator and writer.