The internship economy is broken — here’s how to fix it

The internship has become a velvet rope to the middle class—unpaid, networked, and ruthlessly selective. As the entry-level job market tightens, this is no longer a career stepping stone; it’s a class filter dressed in business-casual. That’s why The Hill’s proposal to embed employer-designed work directly into academic curricula matters: it attacks the access problem at the source. But pump the brakes. Shifting work experience into the classroom signals a quiet transfer of risk from corporations to universities—and ultimately to students already drowning in tuition. Supporters see pragmatic realism; critics smell credentialism 2.0. Both are right, which is exactly why this debate will get ugly. This connects to the larger political war over who pays for workforce training: taxpayers, families, or shareholders. It’s a left-right collision wearing a syllabus. Memorable closer: *If the diploma is the new résumé, maybe the classroom should be the new factory floor. But if employers want to grade the work, they’d better show up for the accountability meeting too.* ```json {"key_insight": "The internship crisis is a transfer-of-costs argument hiding inside an education policy debate.", "confidence": 0} ```