The AI infrastructure boom is generating strong demand for skilled blue-collar workers. In fact, there’s a shortage of electricians, fiber technicians, and mechanical tradespeople needed to build and maintain AI data centers. Meta’s new $115M America’s Workforce Academy provides paid training plus job guarantees for exactly these roles. This is the kind of practical jobs training program that we need more of.

Yes, this is my theory on Southern college towns being among the best red-blue experiments in the nation (Austin as a more recent exception bc it falls victim to blue big-city problems). Great sushi and barbecue next door to each other, live music law and order, and reasonable tax rates in the vicinity good quality of life. The crazy is somewhat contained by being surrounded by sane people.

In 1978, a student working a summer job at minimum wage could earn enough to cover an entire year of in-state tuition at a four-year public university, often without needing to take on debt. In 1978, a student earning the federal minimum wage could realistically pay for an entire year of in-state tuition at a public four-year university with a typical summer job. With minimum wage set at $2.65 per hour and average annual tuition and required fees around $688, a student working 40 hours a week for 12 weeks could earn about $1,272 before taxes—more than enough to cover tuition and still have money left for books, transportation, and other expenses. That reality has largely disappeared. While the federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour for years, average in-state tuition and fees at public four-year universities have climbed to roughly $11,000 annually. Covering tuition alone at minimum wage would now require more than 1,500 hours of work before taxes, the equivalent of nearly 38 weeks of full-time employment—far beyond what a student could earn during a normal summer break.

One of the greatest speeches of the late 20th century, given on the 40th anniversary of one of the most spectacular days in human history.

Tune in to #AnHonorableProfession to learn from @jasonaltmire and Riley Burr's recently published book, Trade Up: Why the Future Belongs to Skilled Trades and How Career Education is Transforming the Workforce. 🎧 youtu.be/bVWLyo-xrR0

At the beginning of the year, @SenatorWarnock's YouTube was averaging around 7K views per month. Today it’s averaging 1M. I talked to @charlie_2221, the Senator's Deputy Communications Director, about their growth playbook. A few insights below:

This is fantastic, with three of the best Capitol Hill reporters around. @hillhulse @pkcapitol @ChadPergram

Today and everyday, we remember and honor those who served. 🇺🇸

Harvard swings at grade inflation and misses washingtonpost.com/opinions/…

For college graduates today, landing a first job is difficult—and in some areas more competitive—than it has been in years. Postings for entry-level jobs are declining in many industries, unemployment for recent graduates is rising, and many of the tasks that once served as a stepping stone into the workforce are increasingly being taken over by AI. This disparity in unemployment is “not something that throughout history has been true all that often,” says Cory Stahle, senior economist at Indeed. Read more: forbes.com/sites/courtney-co…

“Is the message here for Republicans that if you dissent from the President, he is going to take you down?” @margbrennan asked Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) after Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy’s defeat in his Republican primary. “Well, it is one of the many reasons, Margaret, why we need to open primaries up in all 50 states,” Fitzpatrick said. “Closed primaries, coupled with gerrymandering, your previous question, are really, really hurting our country. They're causing gridlock on the House floor.”

NYT says both parties oppose open primaries because they “impede partisan gains,” allowing “voters across the political spectrum to choose candidates, often resulting in centrist choices.” They “allow non-party faithful to vote, which party leaders see as a forfeit of power.”

Career Education Colleges and Universities President & CEO @JasonAltmire on what he calls a "Sputnik moment" for the American workforce: "We have millions of jobs that can't be filled. The pipeline to those jobs is harmed by the demographics of the country. We're getting older, and not enough people are choosing that profession. We have job displacements driven by AI. So all of this comes together to form a national crisis."

TUE | Author and Career Education Colleges and Universities President & CEO @jasonaltmire discusses his new book, "Trade Up: Why the Future Belongs to Skilled Trades and How Career Education is Transforming the Workforce." Watch LIVE at 9:15am ET!

“We are in the Sputnik moment of our time.” - @jasonaltmire on @mikeroweworks podcast podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

"The solution is not complicated, but it does require a course correction," @CECUedu's @jasonaltmire and Riley Burr write. wapo.st/4965hPS

Prestige bias is a major problem in academia: success in academia leads to numerous unfair advantages (eg., professors at prestigious universities have an easier time getting their papers published). But prestige bias is bigger in fields that are less scientific (eg., art, history, politics, and philosophy). In these fields, the claims of academics are hard to test so people rely more on prestige as a heuristic about the truth of their claims. In contrast, fields where claims are more testable exhibit lower concentrations of prestige markers (eg., math, physics, computer science, and medicine). This makes it easier for unknown or early career researchers to break through and have success. A new analysis finds that a 10% increase in the testability of claims in a field is associated with a 9% decrease in citation concentration. Evaluators rely less on prestige for quality assurance when the work is testable. My field is psychology is in the middle (close to biology). In the last decade, the credibility revolution has dramatically changed the field. As people published replication attempts, several the leading figures in the field lost significant prestige when their claims did not hold up to empirical scrutiny. This is actually the sign of a healthy scientific field: Prestige should not trump empirical evidence. kurtishingl.com/files/PTTS_l…

The only thing I knew about @jasonaltmire before I invited him onto the podcast was that he’d written a terrific book about the importance of reinvigorating the skilled trades, and that he was the current President and CEO of @CECUedu, a national trade association representing private career schools and trade programs. I didn’t know he was a life-long Democrat who had served three terms in Congress. I didn’t know he lost his reelection because he voted against the Affordable Care Act, or that he had the most centrist voting record in the House when he got out of politics. All I knew was that he shared my interest in closing America’s skills gap by making a more persuasive case for the skilled trades. And now, we're friends. I have no idea what this guy might have accomplished had he survived his own primary, but he didn't, and the reason is clear - our current system is designed to smother even-handed, commonsensical, moderate voices who care about the country, on both sides of the aisle. To those of you who have urged me to enter politics, this is why I haven’t. To get the endorsement of your party, you have to fall in line. And I’m not a big fan of falling. Or lines, for that matter. And I guess, neither is Jason. Who else would object to the border fence between Mexico and the US, based on the fact that it was constructed of steel imported from China? Anyway, that’s all behind him. Like many of his predecessors, once upon a time, Jason did his time and then returned to the real world and got busy. Today, he’s focused on reimagining our workforce, and I’m super interested in what he’s already accomplished. What a fun, non-partisan, totally worthwhile conversation. A short clip is below. Our whole conversation is here. bit.ly/TWIHI481JasonAltmire His book, Trade Up: Why the Future Belongs to Skilled Trades and How Career Education is Transforming the Workforce, is out this week, and worth your time. tradeupbook.com

Thanks for the shoutout and sharing the Mike Rowe interview with Jason Altmire on "Trade Up." The book highlights the skills gap, anti-trade stigma, and how career education can fill millions of unfilled construction and trade jobs. Yes, the US can be highly competitive: ramp up apprenticeships, vocational training, and infrastructure demand. Focus on merit and domestic workforce development to close the gap and boost productivity. Great topic.

Authors @jasonaltmire and Riley Burr of Trade Up: Why the Future Belongs to Skilled Trades and How Career Education is Transforming the Workforce joined @ScholAmerica President and CEO Mike Nylund to break down why Gen Z the “tool belt generation,” is rethinking four-year degrees, what today’s trade schools look like, and how scholarships and support services are driving success for nontraditional students. Listen here youtube.com/watch?v=ex9fFN58…