In recent years, colleges have been fretting over a grim trend: Americans are rapidly losing confidence in higher education. A new report offers a slightly better outlook: Most people still say that higher ed is worth the cost.
That’s what the think tank New America found in its annual Varying Degrees report, released on Wednesday. Among the 1,500 adults surveyed, a majority said they believe higher education is worth the investment. Eighty-five percent endorsed that view for community colleges; two-thirds said the same of four-year colleges.
“Americans say they’re not happy with higher education in the U.S., but it’s also clear that they see the benefits that higher education can bring to themselves, individually in society, and to the communities they live in,” said Sophie Nguyen, a senior policy analyst with New America’s education policy program and the study’s lead author.
Such gains don’t require a four-year degree, Nguyen said. Even with a certificate or an associate degree, respondents said they believe individuals will experience lower rates of unemployment and contribute more to society.
Around seven in 10 respondents said people need to “complete at least some amount of education beyond high school to ensure financial stability.”
“There’s a fairly positive improvement in confidence in higher education,” said Barrett Taylor, an associate professor of counseling and higher education at the University of North Texas. “But it really breaks down when you get to the level of what people mean by higher education.”
For a majority of the individuals surveyed, higher education is a pathway toward employment.
In July, a poll from Gallup found that confidence in higher education has fallen 21 percent. A study from EAB, a consulting firm, found that prospective college students feel unprepared for the next step in education.
Nguyen said she thinks New America’s results differ because the report surveyed the general public, rather than a specific or condensed group, and because their definition of higher education is broader.
Going to College Is Still Costly
While most people see the value of higher ed and believe a postsecondary degree is necessary to earn a living wage, they don’t necessarily believe it’s accessible.
Only about half of respondents said pursuing higher education straight out of high school is affordable.
Most people surveyed said community college is worth the cost and is “for people like them.” Community colleges, which tend to be the least-resourced institutions, provide an economical, accessible path to a degree, especially for low-income students and students of color, Nguyen said.
Some respondents said more should be done to ensure equitable access to college. For instance, support from the state and federal government could go a long way.
“In the grand scheme of things, public higher ed, with what it’s become, they think the government should invest more to make it affordable,” Nguyen said.
If certain academic programs fail to meet graduation requirements or leave students saddled with significant loan debt, around 80 percent of respondents agreed that those programs should lose eligibility for federal financial aid.
Most people agreed that students from historically underrepresented groups should be given career-related assistance and support with academics and financial aid in their pursuit of a college degree. However, when asked about increasing government funding for minority-serving institutions, there was a partisan split.
Eighty-four percent of respondents who identified as Democrats said they would support more federal tax dollars going to minority-serving campuses, which include historically Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions, and tribal colleges. Less than half of Republican respondents felt that way.
That finding was concerning to Taylor. “While it’s good that there’s some nominal improvements in the level of confidence that higher ed is good for something … there doesn’t seem to be the same level of consensus there,” he said.
Support for minority-serving institutions wasn’t the only political divide in New America’s findings. The study also found that 78 percent of Democrat respondents agree that government funding should go toward supporting education after high school; 36 percent of Republican respondents said the same. The other 64 percent of Republicans said college payments should come out of a student’s pocket.
