For as long as I can remember, especially for the low-to-middle class, a college education was believed to be the golden key that would open the gates to a rich, fulfilling, and financially secure life.
Gallup has just knocked the legs out from under that belief, with research that reports only 36% of Americans have confidence in higher education, down from 57% just eight years ago — a serious decline of some 42%.
What has happened?
A clue comes from this stat: Confidence in higher education among Republicans is about 19%, while among Democrats, a majority, 59%, have confidence in higher education.
Gallup did not probe the reasons for the decline this time, but noted it believes rising costs play a role in the declining confidence in higher ed.
In previous polling, Democrats complained about rising costs — which is not necessarily a loss in confidence, but affordability — while Republicans registered concerns about politics in higher education.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Conservatives regard most higher education institutions as factories for left-wing indoctrination — and worse. You hear that every day on conservative outlets.
It can’t be denied that liberal thought controls most college campuses, as it does Hollywood, large newsrooms, and the majority of large American cities. This is disputed only by ideologues who are blind to reality.
It’s hard to argue that most liberal campuses are filled with excessive discussions of gender, but a lack of candor on many subjects, with trigger warnings, “safe” locations on campus, separate graduation ceremonies for gay students, for Black students, speech codes, and an antipathy to speakers who don’t conform to campus politics.
One quick illustration, from my column a couple of days ago. The student newspaper at the elite Ivy League Brown University reported 38% of students claimed to be nonbinary, double the number from 13 years ago. At that rate, 76% of the students will (say they are) gay by 2036, and 100% a few years later.
Do you think you’d get the same result at, say, West Point? Really doubtful.
You may not feel it is “indoctrination,” you may think it is just open-mindedness, but it seems those beliefs are creating pushback on the right that steers them away from the once-cherished ideal of a college education.
Aside from its stated goal of creating well-rounded citizens with a broad range of knowledge, college was thought to pave a path to gainful employment. That’s one reason many students went into debt to get a degree.
Maybe because of excessive cost, America is rethinking the idea of a four-year higher education being required for a good job.
Shortly after he was elected governor of Pennsylvania earlier this year, Josh Shapiro declared that a four-year college education was not necessary for 65,000 state jobs, which is 92% of them, that candidates would compete for these positions based on skills, relevant experience, and merit.
An excellent idea and others are following in his footsteps. That is a major sea change and a blow to what’s called the college-industrial complex. College enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.
Even before the dawn of this century, many too-smart-for-the-room colleges, in a massive demonstration of self-hate, were dropping “Eurocentric” courses, such as the History of Western Civilization, even while enjoying the benefits brought by Western civilization. In fact, Western Civilization has all but vanished from the curriculum.
This is not to say that other cultures should not be added, but at the expense of your own — the culture that created democracy and the Enlightenment?
This has been accompanied by the decline of other long-valued courses of study from English to philosophy.
Many American literary bulwarks have been declared “too white,” as if it were a zero sum game: If you add Malcolm X, you must delete Mark Twain. That is the kind of insanity you find on too many college campuses.
We should reimagine college. Maybe there ought to be two types of education — the four-year liberal arts that leads to that “well-rounded individual,” alongside a two-year practical course of study that drills down on only the specific courses needed to get a job, as, say, an architect, or a nurse.
There may not be safety even in blue collar occupations.
I did a column on a well-known Center City hotel doorman who was retiring. During the interview, I told him he enjoyed a job that couldn’t be outsourced to China. He laughed.
That was true then, but we are getting close to that job being replaced by a robot.
The last time I was in Chili’s, I noticed there was a server, but she told me I could order my entire meal using a tablet on the table, and Chili’s isn’t alone. You can see where servers can be replaced and the meal can be delivered and cleared by a robot, eliminating the busboy.
Experiments with long-distance trucks without drivers are being conducted right now. Also driverless Uber cars.
It may take a while, but how long before AI leads to the end of plumbers and welders?
Whoa! I got myself way off base.
I think we are at a point where the entire institution of high education will have to be rethought.
Right now, a great many Americans think it is too costly, and too political.
I think both are right.
Yes, costly and a rip off. The Inky had an article about Penn having a masters of professional nursing degree. So? A nursing degree from Penn costs perhaps 4X as much as one from Temple or Rutners and is no better. It’s a rip off. I worked there — and then I worked at Rutgers — no difference in quality. Lots of difference in price. And don’t get me started with the politics. Remember the water buffalo fiasco?
Ditto
I DO remember the faux racist “water buffalo” remark, when Woke was called Politically Correct.
If college costs too much, I have long said, ditch the Ivy League (tuition Harvard 55K) for a state school (Penn State 32K) or “city’ school (Temple 8K) or community college (Phila CC 2.6K)
As you noted, the educational difference between Penn and Ruthers/Temple is marginal.
So true. I wouldn’t recommend my own alma mater anymore. It’s as expensive as Penn and has gone ultra woke. For most of today’s high school seniors, I’d recommend a good value school with practical course offerings.
2X Ditto
Suggest look into Highpoint University in NC. Yes it is costly however the very best life skills university in the country AND allows FREE SPEECH.
I am sure there are others, as well.
Great newsletter, again. Are colleges, not just elite ones but most state universities too expensive? You bet. Is there a lack of free, frank and open discussion at most of them? Yep on that one too. But our society is one of a lot of intertwined factors. The 2021 median income for those between the ages of 22-27 is $52,000 for those with a bachelor’s degree from college while those with a high school diploma earn $30,000. I’m a boomer and proud of my college degree, earned 50+ years ago. But I had my student loan paid off inside of ten years, not well into my 50’s. I learned my compassionate roots (or liberal, or woke, whatever you want to call it), that have grounded my political thinking throughout my life in those years. And I do understand, and continue to want to understand, the thoughts of those who think differently. We all need to start listening to each other, bring down the cost of colleges and universities, and level the pay scales. You did veer off topic on job replacement, but society will always find another way. I don’t know anyone working in the buggy whip manufacturing sector anymore, do you?
Thanks for the compliment, Mark.
If you were Woke, you would not be here, because they DO NOT want opposing opinions, which are racist, of course. They squelch free speech. You are a liberal, because you are interested in other points of view, and compromise.
College tuition can be brought down by insisting profs making more than 6 figures teach more than one course.
And fire 50% of administrators, whose numbers have done though the roof in recent years.
I think you are sanguine in society will always find a way, per buggy whips. (I was in a buggy whip business, newspapers, and 10s of thousands have been fired or shipped to lower-paying jobs.
Another example -% steel workers and miners. Someone said teach them coding. Well, some have learned that but most have not and have taken a financial blow from which they have not recovered.
At some point — I touched on this once, as did Andrew Yang — SO MANY jobs will disappear, people will be unable to finds jobs no matter how hard they look. And at that point, they should be guaranteed an annual salary, or benefit. I believe people should work if they are able, but I can see where they are willing, but unable, because the jobs are just not there.
Can you imagine an America in which only 10% of the people work — cops and doctors, for instance?
Oops. Off track again 😀
You should have saved this for your next missive…
No idea what you mean. Please explain what I should have saved for my next missive.
I believe the only people who NEED a college degree are those majoring in a field that requires a certification (i.e., law, medicine, accounting, etc.). Everyone else could get all the education they need by READING at least 30 minutes every day. Universities asking someone to pay $200,000 for an ‘education’ he could get by reading at the library every day is outright robbery. (It’s only suggestive, but I worked with a guy who had two master’s degrees from Amherst who couldn’t find his ass with both hands.)
I agree. One of the most educated people I knew was my uncle who never finished high school because he had to help support his mother and younger sister (my mom) when his dad died. He read all the time. He was also very successful, and treated us (the poor relations) to the theater, ballet, the symphony and the opera–all of which he knew a lot about. He quoted philosophers and writers.
As kids we used to play “The Game of Life”–there was a fork in the path–go to college, or go directly into business–that classic choice has disappeared over the years, and in the age of the MBA, is no longer valid. Mail-room to Boardroom doesn’t happen any more. A college degree in these times has become what a high school degree used to be a proxy for–evidence that you are not an ef-up, criminal or irretrievably stupid. It is a credential like a union card, not a signal of education.
Even for the professions you mention, it ain’t necessarily so. Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Webster never went to law school. They studied. Four states (California, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington) allow people to take the bar exam without attending law school. They have apprenticeship programs where you can work for a lawyer for four years and then take the exam.
On the other hand, given the number of folks with degrees, as you describe, who still end up ignorant–I’m not sure how many people would read what they need to without some kind of guidance. My experience is that passing the bar, is actually a pretty low bar, and there are plenty of lawyers who really don’t know what they are doing despite law school.
I do think it’s mostly the money. What sense does it make for someone to go deep into five-figure (or more) debt in order to get a job that pays $35,000 (if that) per year? Why, you’d NEVER get out of debt in your lifetime. That is no way to start a life. I have a lot of respect for countries who have managed to make a college education free. They are wise, because an educated populace certainly makes for a better world in the long run. That said, a trade is a great way to go these days. There is a need, for sure, and the money can be very good.
For the record, we already have various programs to relieve the debt burden of those who REALLY NEED the relief. Which is one reason I oppose the massive giveaway to all, including those who don’t need it. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/student-loan-forgiveness-programs/
It seems like many of us made out pretty good when we graduated high school, some did go to to college, some went into the military like myself, came out with a trade, and went on to a good job. Others went on to become Firefighters,cops,went into the trades. One thing stands out though, most of us continued our education in some way. Night school, or even in the job we chose. Many excelled at there professsions, without a degree, some with a degree worked for them. I wonder if that same energy exists today?
I hear contradictory things about Gen Z and even millennials. I just don’t know if they have a work ethic.
A lot to unpack here (some of which I agree). What I don’t agree, is your Anti-woke bias which appears lately in everyone of your columns. No, sir, Repugs low opinion of higher education is not because these institutions have gone woke. Of COURSE Today’s Repugs have a low opinion of our educational institutions. They also have DISDAIN for diversity, science, literature, journalism, intellectualism, our legal system, government institutions, and generally FACTS. THEY are the party banning books, and parts of our history. They are the party whose twisted culture war crusade is even now interfering with our U.S. Military, and thus national security. The reasons are numerous, and would require an entire essay, so I won’t go there.They have become the Party of IGNORANCE and INTOLERANCE.
Naomi+Brownstein says:
July 1, 2023 at 7:09 pm
I guess you missed my points. I agreed with you. Calling me an “idealogue” whose ideas cant be changed is insulting, especially in this context. .Nothing I said in my response is ideological. I am holding my tongue, (fingers) because a lot of insults I could hurl at you, Please don’t respond. I’m done here, and for good.
You have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear And there is no wall as impenetrable as a closed mind.
I don’t understand how this old comment of mine from July 1 (and not to you) appears on this post. My laptop was stolen recently. Maybe something to do with that?
Deep.
Naomi, it is very probable that Charles simply copied and pasted what you had said in a previous post. If he did it was because he wanted to be a smart ass and remined you waht you said about not coming back here anymore.
I just wanted to point out that Naomi the NAMECALLER had broken her promise to leave.
I simply reposted what she said.
My anti-Woke “bias” will continue as it is anti-free speech, anti-free thought, anti-democratic, anti-logic and in my mind worse than the repugs you hate so much.
Right now there are more doctors than plumbers, heating/AC mechanics, electricians combined. In this heat they are worth their weight in gold. Doctors are a dime a dozen.