federal leverage as an employer, and higher education

The federal government provides full-time employment for 2.8 million civilians. In a given month, the feds may hire 50,000 new employees. Imagine if they said: “We are looking for people who have civic skills, who can analyze complex public or social issues and problems in collaboration with other people, including lawyers, scientists, and laypeople. Moreover, we propose to measure those skills in our potential employees–either by giving evaluations to individuals, or by evaluating the educational programs that they have completed.” The result would be a scramble to provide more effective civic education at the college level. Private employers might also take the government’s lead, since many civic skills are also job skills useful in the private sector.