Pennsylvania’s New Governor Dumps Excessive College Diploma Demands for State Jobs

If a new governor’s first act sets the administration’s tone, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro is making it clear he is not planning to help the government’s regulatory and education establishments ratchet up licensing and credentialing demands on people looking for work.

Shapiro, a Democrat, was sworn into office on Tuesday. For his first executive order released Wednesday, he announced he was opening up thousands of Pennsylvania government jobs to people without college degrees.

“Effective immediately, 92% of all Commonwealth jobs do not require a four-year degree, roughly equivalent to 65,000 jobs,” he writes in the order. “Consistent with this Administration’s commitment to emphasizing skills and experience, job postings will begin with equivalent experience needed in lieu of a college degree whenever possible.”

For the remaining 8 percent of jobs, he is ordering Pennsylvania’s secretary of administration to review the positions to determine which of them, if any, could be revised to allow for practical experience to serve as a substitute for a college degree.

“Every Pennsylvanian should have the freedom to chart their own course and have a real opportunity to succeed. They should get to decide what’s best for them—whether they want to go to college or straight into the workforce—not have that decided for them,” Shapiro said when he announced the order Wednesday.

It’s a big deal that Shapiro is going this route after absolutely trouncing Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano in the November election. The Democratic Party’s strong connections with education unions and college administrations often mean politicians push for more students to attend college. The typical response to the rising demand for college degrees in the work force (and the rising costs of college) from Democrats has been fiscally irresponsible programs like loan forgiveness and more government subsidies (all the way up to and including free college), pumping more taxpayer money into the system and into the pockets of the people who control it.

It’s remarkable, then, for a Democratic governor to turn around