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EXCLUSIVE: Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan believes that attending “prestigious colleges and universities” is not the only pathway to achieve the American dream.
Instead, the term-limited governor, who is mulling a potential bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has been focused on expanding career opportunities “outside an expensive four-year college degree” as part of his push to reduce the costs of post-high school education.
On Wednesday, the pro-Hogan public advocacy group, An America United, unveiled four guidelines that leaders across the country could embrace that follow steps already implemented by Hogan. The new effort was shared first with Fox News.
“A good education is the foundation to career success, but there’s a fine line between investing in developing the talents of the next generation and subsidizing needless credentialism on the taxpayer’s dime. The American dream can’t only run through prestigious universities like Harvard,” Hogan emphasized in a statement.
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Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan meets with New Hampshire Home Builders Association during a trip to New Hampshire, on July 12, 2022 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
(An America United )
In their release, An America United claimed that “colleges and universities have developed bloated administrations that would be recognizable to the federal apparatus subsidizing them.” The release of the plan comes as Hogan addresses the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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The pro-Hogan group argued that “nothing better encapsulates this broken system more than President Biden’s recent unilateral action to cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt. It’s flat out wrong, unfair, and counterproductive to pay off these college debts on the backs of hard-working taxpayers.” The group called the move by Biden “reckless” and urged Congress to “immediately act to limit executive power to unilaterally forgive student loans.”
The executive action by Biden, while praised by many Democrats, was heavily criticized by Republicans.
President Biden announces student loan relief with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona (right) on Aug. 24, 2022 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.
(OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
An America United noted that Hogan launched “a first in the nation successful initiative to eliminate the four-year degree requirement from thousands of state jobs” in Maryland. The group urges leaders in other states to follow Hogan’s model and for the federal government to expand Pell Grant subsidies — which are limited to students with financial needs — for short-term skills-based training.
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The group also emphasizes in their guidelines that current system “undervalues alternative post-secondary education that can provide on the job training for college and non-college graduates.” Pointing to Hogan’s collaboration with industries in Maryland to develop job training programs, the group calls for “dramatically expanding the federal government’s Registered Apprentice system to include high-growth industries.”
An American United is also recommending improving career readiness in K-12 education.
The education guidelines follow proposals released earlier this year by An America United on crime and the economy.
Following his stop at Harvard University, Hogan heads to neighboring New Hampshire, where on Thursday morning he’ll headline the latest edition of “Politics and Eggs” at Saint Anselm College. Hogan’s participation in the speaking series at the school’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, which for two decades has been a must stop in the Granite State for potential and actual White House contenders, will generate more buzz about his national ambitions.
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Hogan, who cannot run for re-election in blue state Maryland, has been crisscrossing the country in recent months on behalf of fellow Republicans on the ballot in November. Those travels took him twice to New Hampshire this summer, with stops in early July and late August. In between those two trips, he also visited Iowa and stopped by the state fair.
The governor told Fox News in July that he will potentially launch a Republican presidential campaign if he sees “there’s a possible road to victory, that there’s a lane and I have an opportunity.”