Fixing America’s Infrastructure is a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity to Build a Better Workforce [OPINION]

Everyone knows America’s infrastructure is crumbling and in desperate need of attention. But that’s far from the only looming national deficit. Our human capital is just as depleted. There’s a growing mismatch between workers and jobs that’s threatening the American Dream for millions of families.

Hoping to distract from the chaos in Washington, the Trump administration has been trying to start conversations about both problems. What the president doesn’t seem to grasp is that the two challenges are best addressed together. There’s no way we can rebuild our roads and bridges without qualified workers — engineers, estimators, skilled tradesmen and others. And a moonshot infrastructure initiative of the kind being talking about in Washington is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to advance a skills agenda on the scale needed today.