More than 825,000 Oregonians started college and never finished. That's a population larger than Portland. And as OPB's Tiffany Camhi reports, it's one the state increasingly sees as critical to its economic future. Oregon set a goal in 2018 to help 300,000 adults earn a degree or credential by 2030. ReUp Education's Scott Lomas said that in most states, adults with some college and no credential outnumber the annual high school graduating class about ten to one. In Oregon, it's twenty.

That number provides a useful backdrop for three other pieces in today's edition, each examining a different part of the path from school to work and where it can break down.

Writing in The Washington Post, former U.S. deputy education secretary Bill Hansen argues that schools can't prepare students for a modern economy in buildings designed for an earlier one. The average American public school is roughly 50 years old, and many lack the labs, workshops, and equipment needed to offer meaningful career and technical education. Hansen points to Idaho, where the West Ada School District purchased a 70,000-square-foot warehouse to turn into a workforce-ready campus.

Dana Stephenson, CEO of the work-based learning platform Riipen, focuses on what happens in college. In The Hill, he notes that more than 40 percent of internships remain unpaid and fewer than half of college students complete a meaningful one. His proposal is to embed employer-designed projects directly into coursework, making professional experience a standard part of earning a degree rather than an opportunity reserved for students with the time, money and connections to secure it.

At the Fordham Institute, Mike Petrilli considers the tension underneath both arguments: In moving away from "college for all," have we overcorrected? High-quality career pathways can expand opportunity, but steering students away from college too early carries its own risks, especially when some students with modest academic records can still benefit from earning a four-year degree.

The real challenge is making sure every pathway leads somewhere. Oregon's 825,000 adults with some college but no credential are a reminder of what happens when students enter a pathway but don't get what they need to finish it.

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