The New York Times is out today with a blockbuster feature that examines the declining confidence Americans have that higher education is worth the cost. The story bluntly asks—whose fault is this? And they don’t shy away from pointing the finger at colleges, for their complete negligence in restraining cost increases, too much of which go for additional layers of useless administration. Some samples:
Americans’ feelings about higher education have turned sharply negative. The percentage of young adults who said that a college degree is very important fell to 41 percent from 74 percent. Only about a third of Americans now say they have a lot of confidence in higher education. Among young Americans in Generation Z, 45 percent say that a high school diploma is all you need today to “ensure financial security.” And in contrast to the college-focused parents of a decade ago, now almost half of American parents say they’d prefer that their children not enroll in a four-year college. . .
A few decades ago, tuition costs were manageable for many Americans. But since 1992, the sticker price has almost doubled for four-year private colleges and more than doubled for four-year public colleges, even after adjusting for inflation. Today the average total cost of attending a private college, including living expenses, is about $58,000 a year.
But this chart on the college wealth premium (that is, household wealth accumulation rather than income alone), based on a Federal Reserve study, really jumps out, although the Times does not focus on it, because they likely fear where such an inquiry would lead:
For some reason the data doesn’t go beyond people born in the 1980s (which means people in college from 1990-2005 or so), but even then, the wealth premium for blacks with college degrees had fallen close to zero, and for whites by 75 percent. If this finding holds up, it ought to be a major scandal for higher education. What can be the cause of this?
[I’ll have a second installment tomorrow.]
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