Aug 19, 2026 · 37 min · 8 segments
Mike Petrilli is solo once again to revisit the college-for-all debate and consider whether the backlash has become an overcorrection. He considers the risks of steering academically underprepared…
Mike PetrilliHost
Amber Northern
That is something we have been following this year, especially over at my school, the Substack.
They have been talking about using work keys in addition to the ACT as part of their program.
And that's got a lot of my fellow reformers quite alarmed because of what they are worried about in terms of low standards.
Certainly sends the message that that that we think they should be thinking about college.
And so balancing that with work keys, which is supposedly measures work skills, you know, has a certain amount of appeal.
The other big news recently, big news happening was that Matt Barnum over at Chalkbeat with his newsletter, Chalkbeat Ideas, wrote a really thoughtful piece that was in part a rebuttal to an argument I made recently, again, in schooled in my substack, arguing that we really should be discouraging students who have either very low grades or very low test scores from giving college a try because the chances of them completing a degree are so, so low.
And if they don't complete a degree, they most likely will not benefit then from the college wage premium because that college wage premium is a college completion premium.
And again, this, this question about, you know, did we swing too far in one direction back in say the Bush Obama years when we really did talk a lot about college for all.
And now are we swinging too far in the other direction? Everybody loves career and technical education.
Makes sense, maybe at a time when we've had this populist backlash that politicians in particular want to send the message that, hey, we respect people who are in the working class, who do not go to college or graduate from college.
And there's also just a strong argument, as I've been saying, that there are routes to upward mobility that don't include college.
But there is also a risk of going too far in the other direction and then discouraging kids who could do well in college and benefit from the college wage premium, not college.
I will say that that many of you out there may say, look, who is ever saying college for all right that that that's a straw man.
That is something we have been following this year, especially over at my school, the Substack.
They have been talking about using work keys in addition to the ACT as part of their program.
And that's got a lot of my fellow reformers quite alarmed because of what they are worried about in terms of low standards.
Certainly sends the message that that that we think they should be thinking about college.
And so balancing that with work keys, which is supposedly measures work skills, you know, has a certain amount of appeal.
The other big news recently, big news happening was that Matt Barnum over at Chalkbeat with his newsletter, Chalkbeat Ideas, wrote a really thoughtful piece that was in part a rebuttal to an argument I made recently, again, in schooled in my substack, arguing that we really should be discouraging students who have either very low grades or very low test scores from giving college a try because the chances of them completing a degree are so, so low.
And if they don't complete a degree, they most likely will not benefit then from the college wage premium because that college wage premium is a college completion premium.
And again, this, this question about, you know, did we swing too far in one direction back in say the Bush Obama years when we really did talk a lot about college for all.
And now are we swinging too far in the other direction? Everybody loves career and technical education.
Makes sense, maybe at a time when we've had this populist backlash that politicians in particular want to send the message that, hey, we respect people who are in the working class, who do not go to college or graduate from college.
And there's also just a strong argument, as I've been saying, that there are routes to upward mobility that don't include college.
But there is also a risk of going too far in the other direction and then discouraging kids who could do well in college and benefit from the college wage premium, not college.
I will say that that many of you out there may say, look, who is ever saying college for all right that that that's a straw man.
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