Who Gets the Final Say – Our Unresolved Education Conundrum…Part 2

THE MORNING AFTER GRADUATION – Johnny Has the Diploma. Now What?

Yesterday, Johnny crossed the stage.

• His name was called.
• His diploma was handed to him.
• Pictures were taken.
• The family celebrated.

For twelve years, adults had been preparing Johnny for this moment.  Parents worried about him, Teachers instructed him, Schools measured him, and the government established the standards he was expected to meet.  And somewhere along the way, Johnny was told to prepare for his future.

Arizona even required him to have a plan.

Beginning in high school, Johnny’s Education and Career Action Plan — his ECAP — was supposed to help him identify academic goals, career interests, postsecondary possibilities, and even the entry-level opportunities that might lead him toward the life he imagined after graduation.

So, Johnny Graduated.  The diploma says he completed the work.  But the morning after graduation –

• Nobody hands Johnny a paycheck.
• Nobody guarantees him a job.
• Nobody promises that the career he planned for is waiting for him on Monday morning.

Yesterday, Johnny was a student.  Today, Johnny is Competition.

And for the first time, the question is no longer simply whether Johnny completed the requirements to graduate.  The question is whether everything that happened before graduation prepared him for everything that happens after it.

WELCOME TO THE JOB MARKET, JOHNNY!

Johnny is not walking into an Empty Room.

In July 2026, approximately 21.3 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 were already employed. Another 2.1 million were unemployed and looking for work.

At the summer peak, the youth labor-force participation rate was 59.1 percent.

In other words, Johnny is entering a market ALREADY CROWDED with millions of other young people looking for part-time work, seasonal work, their first full-time job — or the first rung on a career ladder they hope will eventually lead somewhere else.

And where are many of them working?

• About one in four employed young people works in leisure and hospitality.
• Another 18 percent work in retail.
• Another 14 percent work in education and health services.

Those numbers matter.

Because before we start talking about six-figure careers, college degrees, artificial intelligence, or jobs that require five years of experience for an “entry-level” position, Johnny probably has to accomplish something much simpler.

He Has to Get Somebody to Hire Him.

And now the lesson changes:

In school, Johnny competed for grades. In sports, perhaps he competed for a position. In college admissions, he may have competed for a seat.

But in the labor market, Johnny is competing against people.

• Some are his age.
• Some are older.
• Some have more experience.
• Some have less.
• Some are American citizens.
• Some are lawful permanent residents or other immigrants authorized to work.
• Some are temporary foreign workers lawfully admitted under programs created by Congress.
• And some may be working in the United States without legal authorization at all.

Different people. Different legal categories. Different rules.

And suddenly Johnny discovers something NOBODY could put on his diploma:

Not everyone standing beside him in the employment line got there through the same door.

WHO ELSE IS STANDING IN LINE?

Federal law does not create one single category called “foreign worker.”

That matters.

A farm using temporary H-2A agricultural workers operates under one set of rules.

A hotel, resort, or seasonal business employing H-2B or J-1 workers operates under another.

An international college graduate working through Optional Practical Training (OPT) — operates under still another.

A technology company employing a temporary H-1B specialty worker follows yet another system.

And the protections given to the American worker competing beside them are not the same in every program.

In some programs, employers must actively recruit Americans first.  In others, they do not.  Some programs contain explicit protections against displacing American workers.  Others provide considerably fewer.  Some require special wage protections.  Others allow employment without a traditional labor-market test at all.

And then there is another category altogether:

The person who is not legally authorized to work in the United States.

• Federal law is not ambiguous about that person.
• Employers must verify identity and employment authorization.
• They may not knowingly hire an unauthorized worker.
• They may not knowingly continue employing one after learning that the worker is unauthorized.
• Civil penalties exist.
• Criminal penalties can exist.

The Rules Are Already Written.

Which brings Johnny to a question considerably larger than: “Who gets the job?”

The Real Question may be:

If government expects Johnny to prepare, graduate, become qualified, follow the rules and compete — is government equally responsible for making certain everyone else in that competition is following the same rules too?

Because a rule printed in a statute book and a rule enforced in the labor market are not necessarily the same thing.  And Johnny is about to discover the difference.

THE RULES EXIST — BUT ARE THEY ENFORCED?

By now, Johnny has learned something that was never printed on his diploma.

• There are rules governing who may work in the United States.
• There are rules governing what employers must pay.
• There are rules requiring some employers to recruit American workers first.
• There are rules intended to prevent displacement.
• There are rules prohibiting discrimination in hiring.

And there is a federal law requiring employers to verify that the people they hire are legally authorized to work.

The rules exist.

But that does not answer the next question:

Do they work?

Under federal law, an employer may not knowingly hire someone who is unauthorized to work in the United States — or knowingly continue employing that person after learning he is unauthorized.

Employers are required to complete Form I-9 and examine documents establishing identity and employment authorization.

Violations can bring civil penalties. Repeated knowing violations can bring substantially larger penalties and, in some circumstances, criminal consequences.

So, on paper, the answer appears simple: 

Unauthorized workers should not be competing for jobs in the legal labor market at all.

But enforcement is not quite that simple.

An employer who examines documents that reasonably appear genuine may satisfy the verification requirement even if the documents later prove fraudulent. Immigration enforcement belongs primarily to federal agencies. Wage violations may fall under another agency. Discrimination complaints may go somewhere else.

Different rules.

Different agencies.

Different enforcement systems.

And that creates another question for Johnny:

Who is responsible for making certain all of those pieces actually work together?

The question becomes even more important when we look at where unauthorized workers are estimated to be employed.

Recent research has found substantial concentrations in industries such as construction, agriculture, and leisure and hospitality or here — PRECISELY the kinds of industries where many younger workers may look for their first jobs, like Johnny.

That does not prove that an unauthorized worker took Johnny’s particular job.

It does prove something else:

Johnny may be entering labor markets in which lawful and unlawful employment can exist side by side.

And the burden of fixing that cannot reasonably be placed on Johnny.

• He cannot inspect an employer’s I-9 files.
• He cannot audit payroll records.
• He cannot enforce federal immigration law.
• He cannot determine whether a temporary-worker program was properly administered.
• He cannot investigate whether hiring rules were violated.
• He cannot challenge preferential government programs placing foreign and illegal workers ahead of him.

Those responsibilities belong to the government agencies and employers entrusted with administering the laws already on the books.

Which brings us back to the question we started asking when Johnny walked into the employment line:

If government expects Johnny to prepare, graduate, become qualified, follow the rules and compete, is government equally responsible for making certain the rules governing that competition are actually fair and enforced?

Because the real-world value of a protection is not measured by how impressive it looks in a statute book…

It Is Measured By What Happens When Somebody Breaks It.

SO WHAT DID WE PREPARE JOHNNY FOR?

Johnny did what we asked him to do.

• He went to school.
• He completed the requirements.
• He made the career plan Arizona required.
• He graduated.

Now the system that spent twelve years preparing him has handed him something much harder than a diploma:

Responsibility For What Happens Next.

But preparing Johnny for adulthood cannot end with teaching him how to complete an assignment or pass an examination.

• He now has to understand a paycheck, an employer, a contract, taxes, competition, responsibility and consequences.
• He has to learn that being qualified does not guarantee being hired.
• He has to understand that the labor market contains rules he did not write, and programs prioritizing non-citizens.
• He has to accept that his job competitors may have entered that market through entirely different legal doors.

And he has to know something else:

Following The Rules Does Not Mean He Should Stop Asking Whether The Rules Are Being Followed By Everyone Else.

That Is Not Cynicism.

     That Is Adulthood.

Part I asked who gets the final say while Johnny is growing up.

The parent?  The school?  The student?  Eventually, the answer became Johnny.

But Perhaps That Was Never the End of The Lesson.  Because adulthood does not mean Johnny suddenly knows everything…  It means He Is Now Responsible for Knowing Enough To Ask The Right Questions.

Did his education teach him how?  Did it prepare him merely to graduate?  Did it help him understand the world he was graduating into?  That may be the real test.  Not whether Johnny can walk across the stage.  But whether, the morning after graduation…

He Knows What To Do When Nobody Is Standing There To Tell Him What Comes Next.

Education Did Not End When Johnny Received The Diploma.

It merely stopped being compulsory.  From this point forward, Johnny will decide what he learns, whom he believes, which rules he follows, which questions he asks — and what kind of adult he becomes.

Johnny’s future does not belong to the school that educated him, the employer who may hire him, the government that writes the rules, or the competitors standing beside him.

It belongs to Johnny: His mind, His effort, His choices and His willingness to keep learning will determine what he does with it.

The diploma opened the door — Now Johnny must decide whether he has the courage to walk through it.

The Classroom Door Has Closed.

THE REAL TEST JUST BEGAN.

by Linda Brickman

©2026 Linda Brickman All Rights Reserved.