This is something that we and others have been watching closely for years. Higher education in America is headed for a major implosion. Greg Jones of The Federalist suggests it is already happening:
Enrollment Data, Public Opinion Suggest The College Bubble Is PoppingAll good things, goes the old cliché, must come to an end. And for American higher education, the end is nigh. It will be a particularly sad finale as, before their descent into madness, America’s college campuses were a premier source of national pride.Even today, people from all corners of the globe dream of sending their children to one of the many leading education centers within America’s borders. Despite comprising less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States boasts more than half of the globe’s top 100 universities.These institutions have advanced research critical to some of the biggest scientific accomplishments in modern history, from a fundamental understanding of chemical reactions to the Internet. But now a lethal combination of radical liberalism, a rapidly evolving economy, and unstoppable technological progress is all but certain to fell America’s ivory tower…Student bodies are in decline across the country, and somewhat drastically. The spring of 2017 hosted 2.4 million fewer students nationwide than did the fall of 2011, or an approximately 12 percent decrease in six years. Continued reductions in enrollment will hit the smallest, and by extension most vulnerable, colleges the hardest. But there is little even the nation’s largest colleges and universities can do at this point, as public perception of a degree’s value has created a cost/benefit crisis that, given plausible future trends, may be impossible to reverse.A Wall Street Journal poll from last September revealed Americans to be essentially split (49 percent to 47 percent) on whether a college degree is worth the cost. A CNBC poll just four years prior was much kinder, with a 13 percent differential in favor of earning a degree.
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