The perfect storm of the pandemic and inflation is like a wrecking ball for higher education. More young people are deciding to work instead of going to school.
KARE News reports:
More high school graduates deciding to skip college; here’s whyNadia Rakun graduated high school in 2021. She could have gone on to college but decided to work instead. Right now, she has not one, but two jobs.“I kind of just wanted to do that, it’s where I’m most comfortable, and making good money doing it, and I can save, so I felt like that was my best option,” she said.Nadia didn’t want an online college experience and with the hot job market she’s kind of set. Know someone like her? You probably do.The enrollment numbers at Minnesota colleges and universities are down — way down. But it’s not just a Minnesota thing. The number of high school graduates going on to college across the country is dropping dramatically.”There are now a million fewer students enrolled than there were two years ago before the pandemic,” says Doug Shapiro, executive director of The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.Shapiro says it’s the biggest drop in 50 years.“They have doubts about the value and the potential earnings pay off that might come from a degree, and they are much more wary about the need to go into debt to pay for that degree,” he says.The cost of college is definitely high on the list of reasons some students are choosing a different path, but it’s not the only reason, and all of it is concerning.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY