With a new presidential administration and a flurry of activity on the federal level, it’s easy to overlook the vital role that state policymakers and advocates play in protecting workforce funding and advancing policy that helps more workers tap into training and education, good jobs and economic prosperity. But now is not the time to look away!
While we are calling on you to take action on the federal level to protect workforce funding, National Skills Coalition will continue to support our network partners in advancing skills policies and defending hard-won policy gains achieved at the state level. This work is vital to increasing economic prosperity as states can be both models of opportunity – advancing policy for the federal government to emulate– and demonstrations of how flexibility within federal policy can make a difference in people’s lives, for better or for worse.
Now, more than ever, we need you in the fight for skills and good jobs in the states.
As background, National Skills Coalition works with dozens of different state partners – whether through our 20-state Skills State Policy and Advocacy Network (SkillSPAN), Business Leaders United Network, Infrastructure Equity Policy Project, Expanding College & Career Possibilities Policy Action Initiative, New Mexico Worker Equity Initiative, or various time-limited technical assistance projects.
We support these network partners in many ways, including with:
Working with dozens of state partners in this many ways means that the strategies that we co-create must be tailored to each state’s particular context and unique policy and political landscape. Sometimes the strategy is focused on educating state legislators. Other times, it’s more critical to inform governor’s offices and state agency leadership about how executive orders, agency rules, and funding decisions will affect workers and businesses.
As a new administration and Congress takes the helm in Washington, D.C., state constituents need to inform their policymakers of the implications of federal policy changes and proposals for their states. NSC is supporting advocates being called upon to pull double- or triple-duty during these times: to push for or defend beneficial workforce policies at the state level while reminding state leaders (where needed) to defend the federal funds Congress has already allocated to the state that could support the workforce.
For instance, NSC outlined how state policymakers needed to invest in training and enact other policies to avoid further worker shortages and fully realize the millions of jobs that will be created by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act. State advocates answered the call and built diverse coalitions to push for policies needed to increase training and supports for people to access infrastructure and clean energy jobs.
Now, in light of recent presidential actions, some state advocates must also insist that their state’s leaders – their governors, attorneys general, and their Congressional delegation – stand up to defend the funds previously appropriated by Congress under these laws. In doing so, they may need to illustrate through storytelling and/or through fact sharing the awesome opportunity to create and retain jobs that the state will be missing by not defending these allocated funds.
NSC will be here to help strategize with each of our state partners as they play all these roles. We will do this by continuing to convene, provide resources, and thought partnership. We are grateful for the partnership of each of our current and previous state partners.
For the partners we have not worked with yet in the fight for skills and good jobs in the states, we invite you to:
Whatever your point of entry, we invite you to get or stay active on the state level to advance or defend policies and funding that help more workers live better lives. The fight in and from the states is too important for you not to be.
