Even colleges can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Just 38 percent of Americans have high confidence in higher education, according to a new Gallup poll. That’s down from 57 percent in 2015. Gallup found the main reasons for this lack of confidence are political agenda, cost and the failure to prepare students for careers.
This is a stunning — and much-needed — fall from grace.
Many schools and politicians spent decades pushing ever-more kids into college. They told high school students that higher education was a virtual guarantee of financial security. You’ve likely heard some version of this factoid. College graduates earn $1 million more than nongraduates during their careers.
Sen. Bernie Sanders even sponsored the College for All Act. It was endorsed by numerous left-wing groups including the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.
This effort persuaded more people to attend college. In 1974, just under 48 percent of high school graduates went to college. That number topped 70 percent in 2009. In 2014, it was 68.4 percent.
But for many, the financial benefits didn’t materialize — even as tuition soared. More than 9.5 million student loan borrowers are in default, according to a recent Associated Press analysis. That includes a 4.2 million-borrower jump from April 2025 to March 2026. One of the reasons for the jump is the end of the COVID-era payment pause. Borrowers default if they don’t make a payment for nine months.
Universities once introduced students to the great ideas and authors of Western civilization. Now, many professors emphasize America’s sins, not her greatness. Debate once flourished on college campuses. Now, colleges routinely allow students to harass Jewish students or shout down speakers who believe men aren’t women.
Further, elite universities routinely discriminate against white and Asian applicants.
Would-be students have noticed. In 2024, college attendance was under 63 percent among high school grads. The drop-off has been especially pronounced for male students.
A decline in college enrollment has led to a wave of college closures. In the 2013-14 school year, there were more than 7,200 post-secondary institutions accepting federal financial aid. In the 2024-25 school year, there were 5,760. That’s a 20 percent decrease.
This doesn’t mean UNLV or Stanford are on the verge of bankruptcy. Many of the closed schools were technical campuses that offered certificates, not four-year degrees. But hundreds of degree-granting institutions, especially in the Northeast, have closed, too. America’s declining birth rate is another daunting problem for many struggling institutions.
Now, colleges face a new challenge — students using AI to cheat. Brown University economics professor Roberto Serrano recently demonstrated that this problem has become widespread.
For one economics course, he let his class of 86 take home the midterm. The average score was 96 percent. In past classes, the average midterm score had been between 65 to 80 percent. Because he suspected many of his students used AI to cheat, he changed the final to an in-class exam. Twenty-seven students either dropped the class or didn’t take the final. The average score was 48.5 percent. Two students who scored 100 percent on the midterm scored a 0 on the final.
Put it all together. College is expensive, saddling many students with loans they’ll spend decades struggling to repay. They shelter students from authors such as Shakespeare and competing ideas. They practice discrimination in admissions. And students can get A’s outsourcing their thinking to ChatGPT. That’s not a great sales pitch.
Here’s the irony: The ongoing college collapse is driven by knowledge, not ignorance.
Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.
