WASHINGTON, — For generations, American families were given a fairly simple formula for success: Graduate from high school, go to college, earn a degree and get a good job.
That formula isn’t looking nearly as convincing anymore.
A new Gallup survey finds the share of Americans who consider a college education “very important” has fallen to a record low, continuing a dramatic decline in confidence in the traditional four-year college path.
Just 35% of Americans now say a college education is “very important,” according to Gallup. That is down from 75% when Gallup asked the question in 2010 and 53% in 2019. Another 40% now describe college as “fairly important,” while 24% say it is “not too important.”
That isn’t a small shift.
It is a collapse in confidence.
And universities should be asking themselves why.
For decades, young Americans were told that college was practically mandatory for entering the middle class. Families saved for it. Students borrowed enormous amounts of money for it. Government encouraged it through grants and federally backed student loans.
But increasingly, Americans are asking a question that should have been asked all along:
What am I actually getting for the money?
Gallup found that attitudes toward college depend heavily on whether Americans believe a degree actually prepares students for employment. Among people who say college is very important, 70% believe a bachelor’s degree prepares graduates well for a good-paying job.
Among Americans who say college isn’t important, only 17% believe the same thing.
There it is.
The debate isn’t simply about education.
It is about value.
College can still provide tremendous value. Doctors, engineers, nurses, scientists, attorneys, teachers and many other professionals require extensive education and specialized training. There are careers where a university degree remains essential.
But that doesn’t mean every 18-year-old needs to borrow tens of thousands of dollars and spend four years on a university campus simply because previous generations were told that was the only respectable road to success.
It isn’t.
And American families increasingly know it.
Gallup found Americans overwhelmingly believe colleges need to do a better job providing students with practical skills and preparing them for employment. Nearly nine in 10 Americans said colleges and universities need significant changes or a complete overhaul to better prepare graduates for good jobs.
Read that again.
Nearly nine out of 10.
When that many Americans think an institution needs substantial change, university administrators might want to spend less time telling the public why they’re wrong and more time figuring out why they’re losing them.
Then there is the cost.
College tuition has risen dramatically over the past several decades, while student debt has become a defining financial problem for millions of Americans. Federal student loan debt alone remains measured in the trillions of dollars.
Students should be asking whether the salary attached to a particular degree justifies the debt required to obtain it.
Parents should be asking the same question.
If a student borrows $80,000 for a degree that leads to a $40,000-a-year job, we should be willing to ask whether that was a good investment.
Meanwhile, America desperately needs electricians, plumbers, welders, mechanics, technicians, construction workers and people trained in advanced manufacturing.
Many of those careers don’t require a traditional four-year degree.
They require skills.
And now artificial intelligence is adding another complication.
AI is rapidly changing what employers need from workers. Tasks once performed exclusively by college-educated employees can increasingly be assisted or automated by artificial intelligence. At the same time, workers who understand technology, data, advanced manufacturing, skilled trades and specialized technical systems may become increasingly valuable.
That doesn’t mean AI makes college obsolete.
It means universities no longer have the luxury of assuming that a diploma alone guarantees economic value.
A degree has to represent something.
Knowledge.
Competence.
Critical thinking.
Professional preparation.
Marketable skills.
And universities have to demonstrate that what students learn is worth what students pay.
There is another issue colleges cannot ignore: politics.
Gallup found perceptions of higher education vary significantly by political affiliation. Republicans are considerably less likely than Democrats to view college as very important, continuing a broader partisan divide in Americans’ attitudes toward universities.
Universities can dismiss that as conservative hostility toward academia if they want.
Or they can ask whether institutions that increasingly became associated with one side of America’s cultural and political divide helped create their own credibility problem.
Higher education should challenge students intellectually, not simply tell them what to think.
Students should encounter ideas they agree with and ideas they despise.
They should learn how to argue.
How to research.
How to question.
How to defend their conclusions.
And how to change their minds when the evidence proves them wrong.
That’s education.
But above all, families spending $20,000, $40,000 or $60,000 a year deserve to know what that investment is buying.
Maybe America’s changing attitude toward college isn’t evidence that Americans suddenly stopped valuing education.
Maybe Americans are finally distinguishing education from credentials.
There is a difference.
A young person who becomes a master electrician is educated.
A welder who understands complex fabrication is educated.
A software developer who learned outside a university is educated.
An entrepreneur who builds a successful business is educated by experience.
And a student who needs medical school absolutely needs the academic foundation necessary to get there.
The goal shouldn’t be college for everybody.
The goal should be giving every American the education, training and skills necessary to build a productive life.
College is one path.
Trade school is another.
Apprenticeships are another.
Technical certification is another.
Military service can be another.
Entrepreneurship is another.
And in an economy being transformed by artificial intelligence, the winning path may increasingly be the one that teaches Americans how to do something valuable, not merely how to collect another credential.
Universities don’t have to disappear.
They have to compete.
They have to prove their value.
And according to Gallup’s numbers, millions of Americans are no longer willing to simply take their word for it.
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