Question Finally Being Asked: Is College Worth It?

The confidence level in the value of a college education has steadily declined over the past decade, with polls showing that Americans feel the higher education system is heading in the wrong direction.

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Only 36% of adults say they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, while 32% say they have “some” confidence and 32% say they have “little to no” confidence, a report from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found in July.


The same question found that 57% of Americans had a high confidence level in higher education in 2015.

“It is sad to see that confidence hasn’t grown at all,” said Courtney Brown, vice president at Lumina, an education nonprofit focused on increasing the numbers of students who seek education beyond high school. “What’s shocking to me is that the people who have low or no confidence is actually increasing.”

For the roughly one-third of Americans who have little to no confidence in the college system, 41% say colleges are “too liberal,” or trying to “indoctrinate” or “brainwash” students. Another 37% believe colleges don’t teach relevant skills, graduates struggle to find jobs and the degree doesn’t mean all that much. Some 28% said the cost concerns them, along with student debt levels.

Beege Welborn

Hopefully not paywalled - I got into fine from X.

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