Name a policy that Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Ron DeSantis, and Gavin Newsome all support. And I don’t mean something they are passively allowing or a shallow endorsement of motherhood and apple pie, but real, meaningful policy they are running on in campaigns and enacting while in office.

The list of such policies is not long, but it includes at least one item: the removal of college degree requirements for government jobs. It’s a policy that was first enacted by two Republicans who could not be more different: Donald Trump, via a federal executive order in 2020, and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, via a state executive order in 2022. 

In just the couple of years since that time, 23 states have now taken similar steps either through their governor’s directive or legislation. Support has come from blue, red, and purple states ranging from Ron DeSantis in Florida to Gavin Newsome in California. Governors who were considered for their party’s vice-presidential nomination: Republican Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, Democrat Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, and current Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz have all signed similar executive orders.

In a recent speech, Kamala Harris endorsed the policy too. “As president,” she promised, “I will get rid of the unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs to increase jobs for folks without a four-year degree.” Her staff should probably tell her that those requirements have already been removed and that her own administration is still actively implementing its predecessor’s executive order, but her comments are a positive sign nonetheless.

While they are encouraging, the steps that have been taken are unfortunately still not enough.  More than half of states still have yet to enact any such policy eliminating degree requirements for government jobs. And at both the state and federal levels, executive orders are an insufficient means of enacting meaningful and enduring change, since they can be easily tampered with or repealed by new administrations. Instead, state and federal legislatures should pass bills to make these policies permanent and hold their executive branch colleagues accountable for following through. Some states have already done this and, at the federal level, the “Federal Jobs for STARs Act,” which would codify President Trump’s executive order, was recently introduced by liberal Democratic senators.

But even if these policies are implemented nationwide, simply removing college degree requirements is not enough, mainly because state and federal governments generally have yet to figure out how they will hire once degree requirements are removed.  How will these public-sector employers know who is qualified and who is not?  State and federal employers must build multiple pathways, affirmatively signal for the knowledge, skills, and abilities they value, and include multiple ways for candidates to prove they have what it takes. 

While some have described the removal of college degree requirements as “anti-college,” such policies are anything but. Rather, the move from a focus on degrees to a focus on competency and merit not only puts a greater premium on real, meaningful learning, but also on less-tangible measures, like motivation and teachability, that matter in job performance. Removing degree requirements isn’t about competing with traditional modes of educational attainment, but rather about broadening the types of education (and people) that can be considered for certain roles.  Whether an applicant learned at a college, on the job, or from a family member should not matter: Evidence, rather than pedigree, should hold sway.

Beyond government employment, there are other ways that state and federal leaders—regardless of partisan affiliation—can support the move to skills-based hiring. Today, although college degree requirements are eliminated for federal positions, the federal government still sometimes requires college degrees for its contractors, which denies opportunity to otherwise qualified workers, including many veterans looking to work in defense-related projects. And so the bipartisan “Allowing Contractors to Choose Employees for Select Skills Act,” or ACCESS Act, would extend these principles to federal contractors. 

The final weeks leading up to the election will likely be some of the most contentious we have seen in recent memory.  When the dust has settled and we have a new president, it is comforting to know that there is at least one area where there is hope for meaningful bipartisan action that will benefit all Americans, particularly the majority who have less than a college degree.

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