A college education used to be seen as the ticket to success in life. It wasn't sure-fire; even back in the day when our major educational institutions were more effective, one could still skate through and earn a useless degree that only proved that you showed up for classes and were able to regurgitate enough reading and lecture material to pass. But such people were in the minority, and not well-regarded in the university or later in the job market.
That's changed. An educational institution has one purpose: To produce young adults equipped with marketable skills. Our university systems are becoming less and less effective at that, and at the same time, some schools and institutions are still pushing the "every child must go to college" horse squeeze, and de-emphasizing the trades.
Now we're at the point where, according to a new Issues & Insights/TIPP poll, American voters, by a two-to-one margin, think a college education is a waste of time and money.
The national online poll, taken Feb. 24 to Feb. 27, asked 1,456 adults: “Do you believe a four-year college degree is worth the cost for most Americans today, or not?”
The answer indicates serious erosion in how Americans view the value of higher education. Overall, of those responding, 59% selected “Not worth the cost,” while just 24% picked “Worth the cost.” Another 16% weren’t sure. The poll has a +/-3.0 percentage-point margin of error.
Here's the charted results:
I&I/Tipp: Six in ten American voters say a college education isn't worth the time and money. pic.twitter.com/92zsFIu0fp
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) March 19, 2026
The results are consistent across every demographic surveyed:
It’s yet another segment of American life in which there is surprising unison among different political ideologies: Conservatives (58% not worth it, 29% worth it), moderates (61% not worth it, 21% worth it) and liberals (60% not worth it, 20% worth it).
All the major racial groupings — whites (61% not worth it, 22% worth it), and blacks and Hispanics (55% not worth it, 30% worth it) — agree a college education doesn’t give enough value to make it worthwhile.
Perhaps most damning of all, parents (56% not worth is, 39% worth it) now believe higher ed is a bad deal.
Look, I'm an edumacated guy myself. I have a Bachelor's in Biology (Behavior and Field Zoology) and an MBA in Technology Management. Back when I was taking my undergraduate degree in the early 1980s, most of the curriculum in my alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa, was pretty solid. Oh, it was a liberal arts college with its share of kooks in faculty and student body, but my own education was well grounded in facts, and left me with a good grounding in the scientific method - how to gather and analyze facts and to draw conclusions from those facts. My MBA, in the late 1990s, left me with a better understanding of the emerging high-tech world and gave me an interest in economics that sticks with me today.
All that is changing now, and it's because of excessive government involvement in education.
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When the government pours money in the form of grants and guaranteed loans into a system like our university system, two things happen: More and more of that readily available cash gets siphoned off into "administration," and more and more useless classes and even degree programs pop up. A class or degree program in Underwater Minority Dog-Polishing Studies brings the institution the same revenue as a degree in Software Engineering, and guess which program requires more personnel and resources? When the system gives in to these temptations, they fail in its core purpose: To equip young skulls full of mush with skills and knowledge that employers will be willing to pay for - skills and knowledge that represent a positive return in value for the cost of employment.
These classes, these programs, offer nothing beyond the prospect of a job wherein the most common phrase used is "Do you want that on your Starbucks card?"
There's another problem: The whole "every kid should go to college" hooraw. No, every kid shouldn't go to college; in fact, many should not. But this tendency has led to a sad de-emphasis of the trades. An apprenticeship as a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, or a mechanic can yield great results. These don't take as long as a college degree, they don't cost the way a college degree does - most apprenticeships involve literally learning on the job. These are respectable trades that can be lucrative.
In fact, the world is full of such. One of our sons-in-law is a paramedic; he earns a six-figure income and is routinely turning down added facilities that want him to pick up any shifts he can manage.
Our system of higher education is broken. What's needed isn't reform of the programs and classes; what's needed is to decouple government. Force universities to co-sign student loans. Make the educational system respond to market forces, not woke horse leavings. Then, and only then, will the problems that vex our higher educational institutions go away. Until that happens, we'll see more of the same things we have now: Young skulls full of mush with a mountain of debt and no usable knowledge or skills.
It's small wonder that most people think that a college degree just isn't worth the trouble anymore.
