Two new articles in The Washington Post and Washington Examiner demonstrate how Governor Hogan’s tenure in Maryland set a national example for how to successfully push back against extreme elitist policies by delivering common sense results.
Charlies Lane writes in The Washington Post that Governor Hogan’s legacy includes being “the first governor” to drop the college degree requirement, striking “a blow for the notion that a bachelor’s degree does not automatically represent job-relevant skills and experience and that there are other ways — community college, military service, apprenticeship — to obtain them.” As Axios reports, this policy is now spreading to other states with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro replicating it in his first act in office.
According to a recent piece in National Review, “This should be a no-brainer for the conservative governing agenda…The move lifts artificial barriers to entering the workforce, expands opportunity, and subsequently grows the economy by opening up (often well-paying) jobs to those who would have otherwise been boxed out. On a more fundamental level, it eliminates a basic unfairness that has led to a two-tiered class system.” As Governor Hogan wrote in an October Wall Street Journal op-ed, “It’s time to debunk the fiction that a prestigious degree is the only key to the American dream.”
Meanwhile, another piece from Tim Carney in The Washington Examiner recounts how in August 2020, Governor Hogan “intervened at his own political cost…twice to stop our out-of-control [Montgomery] county health officer from shuttering all non-public schools. In so doing, Hogan not only saved the school year for my children, he saved us from a destructive thoughtless county government that was trying to ruin our lives.” According to Carney, “No elected official has ever taken an action that helped me and my family as much as Larry Hogan did.”
Both episodes highlight how Governor Hogan showed how to defeat overreach with common sense solutions that bring people together — instead of just continuing to exploit divisions.
Read the Washington Post Opinion titled “Larry Hogan’s legacy includes a bright idea for the labor force” here.
Read the Washington Examiner column titled “When Larry Hogan saved our school year” here.