Even in pro-education, pro-work Minnesota, a cultural impediment stands in the way of efforts to enlarge the state's skilled workforce. It's the pervasive bias against vocational education.

So said Harvard education scholar Robert Schwartz, in the Twin Cities Wednesday to meet with educators and policymakers at the invitation of the Greater Twin Cities United Way and Education Evolving, St. Paul-based advocates for more effective public education.

Schwartz is among the education leaders who favor giving Americans in their late teens the option of a European-style blend of academic learning and on-the-job experience. Most U.S. high schools focus almost exclusively on preparing students for admission to a four-year degree-granting college, he says, and that leaves too many young people behind.

While projections show that more than 70 percent of Minnesota jobs will soon require a postsecondary degree, only about half of that number will require baccalaureate degrees. The schooling offered at two-year colleges and via college-connected apprenticeships will satisfy the needs of the rest, analysts say.

Schwartz encouraged Minnesotans to find ways to offer more vocational options to 11th- and 12th-graders. But he warned that "there are cultural issues that must be penetrated." Americans tend to define "college" as a four-year program and consider two-year or vocational training as second-rate, he said. Attempts to present vocational options to high school students sometimes encounter parental or community resistance.

In Minnesota, a shortage of skilled workers is already impeding business growth in some places and industries. Schwartz encouraged state political leaders to use their bully pulpits to help educate Americans about what the jobs of the future will require of their children. I'd say that's an assignment that can be widely shared.