The bachelor’s degree is often promoted as a one-way ticket to a good career and high wages, but recent research shows that an associate degree for two years of study or a certificate of specialized training can also yield middle-class earnings. In fact, salary statistics indicate that workers with these short-term-education credentials can make as much as—or even out-earn—those with a traditional four-year degree.

Since Congress is now reauthorizing the Higher Education Act—the basic federal law that governs about $150 billion a year in student aid and affects many other aspects of how colleges and universities go about their business—why not use this opportunity to show there’s more than one path to well-paying work? The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is figuring out what information students choosing college programs need. For starters, consumer information should include data on short-term credentials, most of which are granted by America’s community colleges.

Enrollment trends show that more and more students are seeking these “sub-baccalaureate” credentials and the number awarded is growing faster than the number of bachelor’s degrees earned. Between 2008 and 2013, the latest year for which the U.S. Department of Education has reported data, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded grew by 18% while the number of associate degrees was up 38% and the number of career-focused certificates granted was up by more than 40%.

True, a bachelor’s degree is a sterling investment on average and over the long run. But many students lack the time, money or inclination to pursue this degree. Consistent evidence, largely put out by College Measures, an education-outcome initiative I run, shows that short-term degrees can lift a worker into the middle class.

Data from Colorado’s Department of Higher Education on graduates from all public colleges and universities and from three not-for-profit ones show that in 2014 the median earnings of someone with an associate of applied science degree ($54,146) 10 years after graduation is neck-and-neck with that of a bachelor’s-degree holder ($55,287).