Confidence in Colleges, Universities Reaches All-Time Low As Value of Degree Diminishes

We published a column last November arguing that the value of a college degree is rightfully diminishing. 

Student loan debt in the United States totals more than $1.77 trillion. Few institutions in the country value free speech less than institutions of higher education. 

And, according to new polling data, Americans at large are starting to agree with us. 

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) found that confidence in colleges and universities has reached an all-time low, with less than one-third of Americans having "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in higher education. 

Likewise, a Gallup study reported that Americans who had a "great deal" of approval for institutions of higher education had plummeted from 57% in 2015 to 36% in 2023.

Poll participants say U.S. universities have lost "credibility" and the return on investment in higher education failed to meet their expectations.

A joint venture between RedBalloon and PublicSquare confirmed that belief last year, when surveying more than 70,000 small businesses about the future of economics.

Per the study:

– 89% of respondents say college campuses no longer foster the debate and critical thinking needed to solve problems.

– 83% of the businesses indicated they are either less likely to or see no difference in hiring job candidates with four-year degrees from major universities.

– 69% of respondents agreed that graduating college students don't enter the workforce with the relevant skills that business and society require. 

– 86% of businesses said they'd prefer a job candidate with four years of experience in the field over someone with a four-year college degree.

Of course, the poll results would differ if the same surveyors calculated the opinions of larger, corporate-run U.S. businesses. And there are fields -- medical, computer science, engineering, etc. -- that require a degree for qualification.

However, those degrees come at a cost – both financially and morally.   

The most prestigious universities in the country – the Ivy League universities – spent the past nine months exposing themselves as semi-indoctrination camps of the Marxian worldview that the world is split between the oppressed and the oppressors, resulting in students and administrators sympathizing with Hamas.

A student is more likely to catch a mind virus at Harvard and Colombia than anywhere else in society.

Further, a college degree does not guarantee success or a higher-paying job. Even the most sophisticated-sounding degrees – like Gender Studies – cannot undo the objective fact that nepotism and racism (as in anti-white racism) are just as likely to determine your level of success as your degree.

While society instills a mindset in young Americans that those who attend four-year universities will be better off, despite the mountains of debt they must run up, trade school students who are not indoctrinated with Marxian concepts continue to thrive.

Plumbers, welders, pipefitters, and carpenters may not have as many followers on X as a journalist who majored in African American Studies and works for Slate. However, those blue-collar workers make more money, are in more demand, and are less likely to suffer from psychosis.

"We have 7.3 million open jobs right now, most of which don’t require a four-year degree," Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe told Fox Business last year. "They require training, they require skill and they require a willingness to master a trade that’s in demand."

Walmart is currently higher truckers at a starting wage of $110,000 a year, double the average starting salary of a four-year graduate.

Yet, high school educators rarely promote the value of learning a trade. 

Far too many students attend college because they believe they are supposed to, major in some useless field, and graduate owning six figures to the government with little worth to the job market.

We are not telling young Americans not to attend college. We are, however, promoting the idea that a college degree is not the ticket to prosperity and happiness that it's sold as.

Fortunately, an all-time high percentage of Americans now concur.