Debates about education policy and the workplace are typically carried out by people far removed from high school classrooms. There’s good reason for that, since age and experience often bring clearer insights not visible to the young.

But education today is in a time of disruption and transition. In many respects, it’s not meeting the needs of young people as they enter a changing workforce.

Maybe it’s time to ask high school students what they need most.

The June 2023 “Question the Quo” nationally representative survey of high school students ages 14 to 18 does just that. It documents Gen Z high schoolers’ views and shifting priorities on education and work. It was conducted by the nonprofit ECMC Group in partnership with VICE Media, the seventh survey report since 2020.

It turns out that Gen Z high school students have new and sensible ideas about the relationship between their K-12 education, going to college and starting a career. They want K-12 to provide them with practical knowledge and skills that lead to more education, training and career options after graduation than they now have. Policymakers and educators can and should take these views into serious consideration as they map out new programs and reforms.

Here are four main questions Gen Z high schoolers have on their minds as they think about their futures.

Do we need a college degree?

Gen Z is skeptical about the value of a traditional four-year college degree. They question whether it delivers sufficient return on investment, having heard stories about student loans and debt. Around half (51%) are thinking about pursuing a college degree, down more than 10 percentage points since before the pandemic and 20 points since shortly after COVID began. Other surveys of young people and adults find similar skepticism about the value of a four-year degree.

On the other hand, 65% of Gen Z high schoolers who responded to “Question the Quo” believe education after high school is necessary. But they want options such as online courses, boot camps and apprenticeships.

What skills should K-12 schools teach us?

The practical mindset concerning college also applies to what young people want from high school. Gen Z places a priority on learning life skills along with academics — things like financial literacy, communication, problem-solving and understanding their own and others’ emotions, which are overlooked in the traditional K-12 curriculum. They value good grades and practical, real-world skills. They also have an entrepreneurial spirit, with a third wanting to start their own business.

Nearly 8 in 10 (78%) believe it is important to develop these practical skills before they graduate from high school, so they are better prepared to decide on career paths. These views are consistent with other national surveys of the American public and young people on these issues.

How can work and life coexist?

Gen Z high schoolers are not only interested in making money; they also want time for their personal lives. They see work-life balance as an important priority. In fact, two of the top factors that impact what they will decide to do after high school — long-term earning potential and physical and mental health — have remained consistent throughout ECMC’s seven surveys. In other words, young people yearn for meaningful work that leaves room for personal development and leisure. Their approach to careers echoes a holistic perspective on the need for a healthy balance between work and personal life, which was a key theme of the December 2021 report from the U.S. surgeon general on youth mental health.

How do I achieve my dreams?

Gen Z high schoolers want to learn on the job and over their lifetime. More than two-thirds say their ideal post-high school learning should be on the job through internships or apprenticeships (65%) or through hands-on learning in a lab or classroom (67%). Only a third say their ideal learning would be only through coursework. More than half (53%) want more formalized learning throughout their life. And 8 in 10 believe government and employers should subsidize, pay full tuition or provide direct training for students.

Gen Z high schoolers do not reject formal academic learning. Rather, they want a system that is more flexible and personalized in its approach to learning and work than what they have now. They are asking K-12 schools, colleges, employers and other stakeholders to think differently about how best to prepare them for jobs and careers.

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to LA School Report’s parent company, The 74.

Meghan Gallagher/LA School Report

The education culture wars on issues like critical race theory and how to teach history create a false narrative and collective illusion on K-12 issues among Americans.

The stubborn fact is that voters’ opinions and governors’ statements show broad agreement on a collection of practical education issues that offers a common-sense K-12 governing agenda, according to three recent analyses.

The two most prominent issues where there is agreement are expanding career and technical education (CTE) and increasing school funding. Others include boosting child care and early learning, raising teacher pay and providing families and students with more education options.

The first analysis is from a 2022 bipartisan poll of 1,200 midterm voters, plus another 600 from the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It identifies four issues on which voters agree.

Voters overall want more parental control and endorse specific changes. Over 2 in 3 (64%) believe “parents should have more control … right now” over what public schools teach. Republicans (93%), Independents (70%) and parents (70%) agree, though more than 2 in 3 (64%) Democrats disagree.

More than 3 in 4 voters overall, across parties — including in battleground states — say four issues from a list of 12 are “very important”: ensuring every child is on track (86%); hiring and retaining high-quality teachers (81%); offering more career education and real-world learning (75%); and improving school security and safety (74%).

A slim majority (53%) supports increasing existing school budgets if funds follow students to “where they receive their education,” though nearly 7 in 10 (68%) Democrats oppose this approach.

Almost 7 in 10 (69%) voters overall, including a majority (51%) of Democrats, support creating more education options, including charter schools, private schools and homeschooling.

A second analysis, by the Manhattan Institute’s Andy Smarick, examines the K-12 agendas of 2022 gubernatorial candidates. At least 25% of the candidates agreed on 6 out of 27 issues, with two tied for first place: expanding CTE programs and increasing school funding, both endorsed by 30 of the 72 candidates, or 42%. The other four top issues were school choice (24 candidates; 33%); expanded pre-K (22 candidates; 31%); teacher pay raises (19 candidates; 26%); and curricular reforms (19 candidates; 26%).

Finally, an issue analysis by the Education Commission of the States of 2023 State of the State addresses found that CTE, teaching quality and school finance ranked “among the most popular” K-12 issues the governors mentioned. A majority also voiced support for early learning and child care. Other “hot topics this year” included student health, school choice and safety. ​​An analysis by the National Governors Association reached similar conclusions.

This agreement creates an ideological heartland, a term coined by the American Enterprise Institute’s Ryan Streeter to describe not a physical location, but a state of mind where domestic realists live.

Domestic realists are not given to ideological political extremes. They lean left or right or are part of that group called moderates. Roughly two-thirds of Americans live in this ideological heartland, compared with less than a quarter of staunch progressives or conservatives who live at the edges of the political spectrum, immersed in the culture wars.

With Republicans in 22 states and Democrats in 17 states controlling the governorship and both houses of the state legislature — the trifecta of single-party government — legislative specifics will vary based on party affiliation and voter preferences. This gives policy and civic entrepreneurs the freedom to meet state needs and local circumstances.

For example, more school funding in one state may mean increasing pay for teachers. In another state, it may mean starting new or expanding current child care and early learning programs. A third state may create education savings accounts that parents can use for private school tuition or to purchase tutoring for a child in traditional district public schools.

Or, a state may use more funding for several purposes, as is being suggested in Oklahoma. There, a new legislative proposal would give private-school parents up to $5,000 in annual credits and homeschool parents up to $2,500 for tuition, tutoring and curriculum, while also providing $500 million in additional grants, salary increases and other funding for traditional public schools.

This implementation pluralism follows the American federalist tradition. It allows states and local communities to be laboratories of democracy that test and refine laws and policies over time. In the words of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, “a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory, and try novel societal and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”

It’s time to forge a new K-12 political coalition of domestic realists from the ideological heartland who have a practical set of governing ideas based on everyday concerns shared by most Americans.

Disclosure: Walton Family provides financial support to LA School Report’s parent company, The 74.

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“Never in my lifetime have so many parents been so eager for so much education change.”

So said longtime pollster Frank Luntz after surveying 1,000 public and private school parents on how the pandemic affected their view of schools.

COVID-19 forced schools to change from being buildings where teaching, learning and programs were bundled together to serve students and families to a menu of services and choices that parents were forced to piece together — rebundle — to meet their needs.

The potential long-term result could be a more student-focused, parent-directed and pluralistic K-12 school system.

The consulting firm Tyton Partners estimates COVID-19 shock produced a 2.6 million-student decrease in district and private schools, with charter schools, homeschooling, microschools and other alternatives gaining enrollment. The U.S. Census reports homeschooling enrollment increased from 5.4 to 11.1 percent of households. African Americans registered a fivefold increase, from 3.3 to 16.1 percent.

What other alternatives did parents choose as they worked to rebuild their child’s schooling?

One was family-organized discovery sites, aka pods — gathering small groups of students, in person or virtually, with added services like tutoring, child care or afterschool programs. San Francisco Mayor London Breed opened 84 pods serving around 2,400 children, about 96 percent racial minorities. The Columbus, Ohio, YMCA offered pods for students aged 5 to 16 attending schools virtually, with arrival as early as 6 a.m. JPMorgan Chase offered discounts on virtual tutors and pods for eligible employees using Bright Horizons, its employer provider, and opened its 14 child care centers for employees’ children’s remote learning at no cost. Organizations like SchoolHouse, LearningPodsHub and Selected for Families helped parents start pods, organizing teachers and tutors.

Microschools were another alternative. They reinvent the one-room schoolhouse, enroll 15 students or less and employ one teacher. Or, parents teach, hiring a college student or other “grown-up” to assist. Prenda, an Arizona microschool network, expanded to Colorado during the pandemic, growing from seven students in 2018 to over 400 schools and 3,000 students who meet in homes or public spaces like libraries. That growth created new partnerships, like the one with Black Mothers Forum, in which Prenda provides the education program and training and the forum provides the school location, student meals through community partnerships, before- and after-school care, and other services.

Virtual schools are a third alternative. Florida Virtual School, an accredited, online, tuition-free school founded in 1997, had over 231,100 new course enrollments — up 57 percent — in its part-time Flex program.

• Read more: Analysis: Surveys find parents want bold changes in schools — with more learning inside and outside the classroom

Many parents want to continue to use virtual learning for at least some part of their children’s schooling. An NPR/Ipsos poll found 29 percent likely to stick with remote learning indefinitely, including about half now using virtual learning.

Policymakers can do two things to assist families wanting to continue their new schooling options and to open them to more parents.

First, elected officials can expand or create programs providing financial assistance. Lawmakers in nearly a third of the states have proposed new laws to expand or establish taxpayer-funded programs like education savings accounts to support these approaches. And governors are using federal COVID-19 relief funds in inventive ways. For example, Idaho Gov. Brad Little created a $50 million Strong Families, Strong Students Initiative, giving eligible families $1,500 per student, with a maximum of $3,500, for educational materials and services.

Second, school district leaders and state officials can continue or expand programs created during the pandemic. A RAND Corp. survey of more than 375 school districts and charter management organizations found 1 in 5 considering a remote school option post-pandemic, including districts in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami and Houston.

On the other hand, New York City and the state of New Jersey announced that remote learning won’t be available for fall 2021.

This led RiShawn Biddle, editor of Dropout Nation, to write in The New York Times that as a “Black man [he believes this is] bad news for the majority of the country’s Black, Latino and Asian students and their parents [that] exacerbates already-existing educational and health care inequities.”

COVID-19 threw into disarray the longstanding relationship between home and school. It created an experiment in K-12 schooling that catalyzed creative and determined parents, civic innovators and policy leaders to respond in new ways. The budding result is a more student-focused, parent-directed, pluralistic K-12 system that federal, state and local policymakers should continue to support.

Bruno V. Manno is senior adviser to the Walton Family Foundation’s K-12 Program. The foundation provides financial support to LA School Report’s parent company, The 74 Media and to some of the organizations named in this essay.

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Take college freshmen. In 2019, more than 8 in 10 (83 percent) said a “very important” reason for attending college was “to be able to get a better job.”

But reality is different.

A 2018 study of over 800 million job postings and 80 million resumes from many years found 4 in 10 college grads worked in jobs not requiring a college degree — for example, as a barista. Three in four stayed underemployed after 10 years.

COVID-19 has further weakened the link between college and getting “a better job.”

Since the pandemic, entry level hiring for college grads is down 45 percent. Postsecondary undergraduate enrollment continues to decline: Spring 2021 enrollment is down 4.5 percent from the prior year, with reductions in all racial and ethnic groups. There was an especially sharp decline in community college enrollment — down 9.5 percent from last spring.

Also, Generation Z high schoolers have changed their thinking about what follows graduation. Over the past eight months, their desire for a four-year degree dropped greatly. More than one in two (52 percent) say they can achieve professional success in three years or less, while only 1 in 4 says a four-year degree is the only route to a good job.

But there’s good news.

Postsecondary institutions and community organizations are creating new and more effective education pathways to opportunity that link education, training and employment. These programs form community partnerships that build bridges among schools, students and employers. They prepare individuals to pursue opportunity. They award accredited degrees and industry-recognized credentials and certificates. They foster opportunity pluralism, creating new options to the “bachelor’s degree or bust” mindset.

Here are five examples illustrating this approach.

College-linked community college: Come to Believe Network is a two-year commuter program reinventing community college. It offers associate degrees and is hosted by Loyola University in Chicago and St. Thomas University in St. Paul, which share resources like the library and back-office services. It has its own full-time faculty and year-round calendar. It provides student support services including meals, laptops, tutoring and career development. Counselors help students explore careers and pursue job searches. They also work with employers to recruit students seeking work experience and employment. Students complete degrees with little or no debt, prepared for the workforce or a four-year college or university.

Statewide programs: Building Futures is a Rhode Island registered apprenticeship program that works with 29 public, private and nonprofit organizations on apprenticeships in several industries. These include construction, health care, manufacturing, commercial fisheries, information technology and marine trades. It has partnerships with the state Department of Labor and Training, Department of Transportation and Office of Civil Rights. Employers co-design programs with Building Futures staff and fund the student training, with a focus on individuals from low-income backgrounds. The program includes work placement and wage progression. Apprentices earn a credential accepted by industries and employers across the U.S.

Postsecondary diversification through acquisitions: Indianapolis-based Kenzie Academy was a venture-funded technology and apprenticeship program for young people, including high school graduates, formerly incarcerated individuals and those with master’s degrees seeking new jobs. It offered credentialed online programs in software engineering and UX — user experience — design with an apprenticeship in Kenzie Studio, the company’s consulting arm. To make its programs accessible, Kenzie has income-share agreements with students, delaying tuition payment until they landed a job paying at least $40,000 a year. The program was recently purchased by Southern New Hampshire University, becoming a nonprofit operating division of SNHU.

Nonprofit partnerships: CodePath is a national nonprofit that prepares underserved populations for technical careers. It partners with over 50 universities and 50 companies to offer no-cost coding courses, mentorships and career support. CodePath supplements college-level courses with campus-based and online computer science classes taught by tech company instructors, with about half offered for academic credit. Students undertake projects based on industry problems. Training ends with a virtual summer course that prepares students for technical interviews with top companies. It’s taught by professional engineers and includes lectures, labs, mock interviews and sessions with industry experts.

Stand-alone nonprofit providers: Generation USA is the American affiliate of Generation, founded by McKinsey & Co., preparing, placing and supporting young adults in pathways programs for jobs in information technology, health care and customer service. It gives priority to Black and Latino applicants, women and those who don’t have a four-year degree, and partners with employers and community colleges to design and deliver free four- to 12-week programs. These are especially designed for the unemployed, underemployed and those facing job displacement. The Rising Talent programs offer students extra support and one-on-one guidance. Virtual career advising sessions provide students and alumni with one-on-one coaching. GenConnect is an online alumni community space that uses videoconferencing so alumni can maintain contact with each other. Programs are offered in over a dozen places, including San Juan, Puerto Rico.

These programs have four characteristics that create a framework for success.

Credentials that pay: Programs have a sequenced academic curriculum, requirements aligned with labor-market needs and a timeline guiding participants through the program. Young people leave with training and a recognized career credential that provides them with a decent income.

Formal agreement among multiple participants: Written agreements — a civic compact of sorts — describe roles and responsibilities and include a program budget. Partners — schools, other educational and community institutions, government agencies, etc. — have a management and governance structure with access to influential individuals needed for program success.

Introduction to careers and on-site work experience: This begins with activities like presentations by speakers and field trips and eventually involves work placement, including mentorships, internships and actual employment, integrated with classroom instruction. This helps participants understand career labor-market demands.

Involvement of employers, trade associations and local organizations: Participating employers and trade associations help define standards and skills students must master to gain a certificate and employment; provide paid internships and apprenticeships; and help assess workforce readiness. Other organizations assist with convening, organizing and planning functions, in addition to providing work placement and social services for participants and their families. These include community foundations, community colleges, chambers of commerce, private-industry councils, the Salvation Army and United Way.

The academic and work learning, along with personal and professional networking central to these programs, provide young people with the knowledge and networks they need to pursue opportunity. They are an exercise in opportunity pluralism, helping individuals develop an occupational identity and vocational self in a field they might not otherwise have access to or even consider. And they provide faster and cheaper pathways to jobs and careers than many traditional postsecondary schools, placing students on a trajectory to economic and social well-being and informed citizenship.

Bruno V. Manno is senior adviser to the Walton Family Foundation’s K-12 Program. Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to LA School Report’s parent company, The 74 Media. All but one of the programs mentioned above (Kenzie Academy) are members of the New Profit Learn to Earn Postsecondary Innovation for Equity Initiative supported by several foundations, including the Walton Family Foundation. 

Echelon Insights

On June 30, Sen. Lamar Alexander convened the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to hear four health experts — including Dr. Anthony Fauci — provide an update on COVID-19, including how K-12 leaders and other stakeholders can open schools safely this fall. Alexander was direct in offering his thoughts: “The question before the country today is not about whether to go back to school, but how to do it safely.”

Public school parents have their own thoughts on this issue. They are worried about the educational effect of COVID-19 on their children and divided on when children should return to school. But they agree that certain procedures should be in place when schools reopen and that schools must rethink how students are educated. Their voices should be heard as Congress solicits viewpoints on reopening schools, including agreeing on a new financial package that contains support for K-12 schools.

The thoughts and concerns of these parents are chronicled by Echelon Insights in a nationally representative survey of 500 public school parents and guardians asked weekly for eight weeks — from late April through mid-June — about the effects COVID-19 is having on issues they face.

In the latest (and final) survey, administered June 15-18, three of the top four COVID-19-related concerns out of 10 options involved schools (the top worry was a family member getting the virus): 62 percent said they worry “a lot” or “some” about “school closures … negative impact on your child’s education”; 61 percent about “kids missing … social interactions with friends”; and 56 percent about kids being “on track … ready for the next grade.” These responses are mostly constant since April.

When asked when they would “personally feel safe sending … children back to school for in-person classes” only 27 percent said August or September, with an additional 17 percent saying “later in the fall.” Thirty-nine percent opted for sometime in winter (14 percent) or spring (15 percent), with 10 percent saying “not at any time in the next school year” (18 percent were “unsure”).

So, there’s no consensus on when reopening school should occur. And there are significant variations across different categories.

White parents are nearly twice as likely as parents of color to say they would send their children back in August or September — 34 percent versus 19 percent.

Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to say this — 34 percent versus 16 percent — with independents at 30 percent.

Parents earning more than $75,000 a year are more than twice as likely than those earning less than $50,000 to say this — 39 percent versus 19 percent — with those between those income levels at 21 percent.

On another issue, while 59 percent don’t plan to homeschool or send their child to a different school, 21 percent plan to do that, with 19 percent unsure. The two primary reasons for changing schooling arrangements are concerns about health and safety (38 percent) and the quality of education (23 percent). Urban parents are more likely (27 percent) than suburban (19 percent) or rural (17 percent) parents to say they plan to do this.

What procedures should be in place when schools reopen?

A majority or more of parents offer “strong” or “some support” for four measures: notifying parents when someone in school becomes ill (63 percent); allowing vulnerable students and teachers to learn and teach from home (56 percent); providing mental health support for students and staff (52 percent); and requiring temperature checks when entering school (50 percent).

Parents also have clear views on whose opinion they most trust to determine when and how school reopens. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (24 percent) is first, followed by state and local health officials (13 percent and 12 percent). Only then do they trust governors (9 percent) and school district leaders (8 percent).

Finally, 63 percent of parents across income, racial and political groups say that in light of COVID-19, schools must rethink how students are educated, a finding fairly consistent since April.

Here are two recommendations — two lessons learned from parent voices — that should guide Congress, K-12 policymakers and stakeholders as they ponder when and how to reopen schools and support parents sending their children back to class.

First, parents want reopening decisions to be a collaborative effort between health and school officials. And they want specific procedures in place in schools to protect their children (and educators) when schools reopen.

Second, when schools reopen, parents want participation options for children. Some will return in person, full time, come August. Others need online learning until they return in the fall or well beyond that. Others may want a combined approach. This requires school districts to be flexible; students to have hardware and other online and digital resources; educators to be nimble enough to support these options; and federal aid not to tie the hands of state and local officials in how to use those dollars.

COVID-19 confronts parents with unprecedented challenges. Policymakers should listen closely to their voices, exercising restraint and humility in their well-intentioned efforts to provide support for when and how schools reopen.

Bruno V. Manno is senior adviser for the Walton Family Foundation’s K-12 education program. Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to Echelon for this poll and to The 74.