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Education Dive
Just 1 in 3 Americans satisfied with higher ed, report finds
Natalie Schwartz
Sept. 10, 2019
Dive Brief:
Two-thirds (65%) of Americans are unsatisfied with U.S. higher
education, according to an annual survey of more than 2,000 adults from
New America, a left-leaning think tank, marking a decrease from 2018
(72%).
About half (51%) of Americans say getting a high-quality education
after high school is unaffordable, and roughly four in five say the
federal and state governments should allocate more funding to higher
education to make it more accessible.
Around two-thirds of Americans say colleges should lose access to
government funding if their students have high default rates, and
three-fourths said the same of institutions whose graduates struggle to
earn a living wage.
Dive Insight:
Only about one-third of adults said U.S. higher education was "fine how
it is," though their responses mark a small increase over previous
years' findings. In 2018, just 27% of respondents were satisfied with
the sector.
Other polls have found a similar lack of trust in American higher education.
A 2018 Gallup poll, for instance, found that around half (48%) of
respondents had "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the
sector, down from 57% who said the same three years prior. Much of that
decline is attributable to Republicans, whose reported confidence in
the sector fell 17% from 2015 to 2018.
"Everyone felt great about American higher education for a long time,"
said Kevin Carey, New America's vice president of education policy and
knowledge management, at an event Tuesday in Washington discussing the
results of New America's survey. "It's clear now that the public is not
entirely content with our higher education system."
Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds (62%) of Americans believe there are "lots
of well-paying, stable jobs" for those who only have a high school
degree, the survey found. That's up from 50% of Americans who said the
same in 2018.
However, that belief may be at odds with the jobs available in the U.S.
The number of "good jobs" — or those that pay at least $35,000 for
younger workers and $45,000 for older workers — available to people
with only a high school diploma has been declining, according to a 2018
report from Georgetown University's Center on Education and the
Workforce.
New America's report noted differing opinions based on how respondents
identified politically. For example, half of Democrats agreed that a
high school degree could lead to a well-paying job, compared to around
three-fourths (76%) of Republicans.
That could be attributable to a growing political divide in America.
"We see cultural issues, particularly around speech and freedom of
expression being refracted through how we see our colleges and
universities," Carey said.
The public's view on such issues will be increasingly important, he
added, as higher education funding becomes a central presidential
campaign issue.
Several Democratic contenders have voiced their support for free
college and debt forgiveness, and President Donald Trump earlier this
year signed an executive order tying research funding to college's
ability to protect students' right to free speech.
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