In August, the US Departments of Labor (DOL), Education (ED), and Commerce released a joint report about the Trump administration’s priorities for the American workforce. The joint report describes the Trump administration’s plan to use existing authorities and funding to address the workforce needs of American companies, integrate and improve data systems to help existing workforce development systems maximize efficiency and effectiveness, provide accountability for workforce training programs, upskill American workers, and develop alternatives to four-year college degree programs. This blog post highlights potential benefits and areas of concern about how these priorities will support policymakers to leverage state data systems in order to answer questions and better support individuals and communities.
There are a number of potential benefits that could result from the implementation of the proposals in the report, including:
- Streamlining and Aligning Data Systems and Public Reporting: The report calls for streamlining and consolidating accountability and reporting processes and promotes shared accountability measures for various programs where relevant. It also proposes consolidating a number of workforce programs and the performance data from those programs. Aligning the data reported from disparate programs, with the proper data privacy guardrails, would reduce the administrative burden on states and other institutions. This would also allow for the report’s proposed publicly accessible dashboards, including a public credentials of value scorecard, to provide students and workers with the information they need to pursue their education and workforce goals.
- Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Reporting and Accountability: The report recommends leveraging AI to improve accountability and related reporting for education and workforce development programs. The administration will establish the AI Workforce Research Hub under DOL, in collaboration with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, and Bureau of Economic Analysis, to analyze AI’s impact on labor market trends. It also suggests using AI for forecasting and identifying the skills needed for the wider economy. The use of AI for reporting and projections could make those processes simpler and more efficient for states and employers. However, it will be important for the administration to proactively address potential challenges in using AI to fill data gaps and conduct data analysis, including perpetuating bias, reducing transparency, and compromising personally identifiable information (PII).
- Outcomes-Based Funding Models: The report suggests using pay-for-performance contracts more frequently and recapturing mechanisms to reprioritize resources away from underperforming programs. This proposal could encourage investment in evidence-based initiatives, which could improve education and workforce outcomes overall. Strong outcomes-based funding initiatives also require a strong state data system foundation, so this might encourage continued investment in statewide longitudinal data systems that connect data across the P–20W spectrum.
While the Trump administration’s proposals could have benefits, it is unclear if those benefits will come to fruition without more concrete details about how the administration will implement all aspects of this strategy. For instance, the report includes a number of plans that require statutory changes, such as building a fully integrated federal data system, but it neither sets forth a plan for making those changes nor discusses how the new federal data system and existing state data systems would work together.
Data privacy is also a concern. The report calls for consolidating federal education and workforce data systems and establishing a federal initiative across longitudinal databases, P–20W data sources, administrative wage records, and related programs to track education-to-employment outcomes. While cross-agency data sharing is often beneficial, it is not clear in this case how federal leaders intend to use the PII that would likely be included in the proposed federal system. Linking PII across agencies without specific authority, a narrow purpose, public transparency, and shared governance can put people’s private data at risk and damage public trust in data use.
Robust state data systems and adequate privacy protections are critical to implementing the administration’s proposed workforce strategy, and should be funded and supported in a manner that recognizes their value. It is important that the administration provide more concrete details on how it will leverage state data systems and protect privacy as it seeks to implement its workforce strategy.
