American views of higher ed decline, once again

Quick post today, as I travel across several American cities:

United States attitudes towards higher education soured yet again, according to a new Gallup poll.  The main question asked this time was “How important is a college education today — very important, fairly important or not too important?”  It’s one Gallup has asked regularly for decades.

Here are the results, measured against annual reports dating back to the late 1970s:

Look at that sheer plummet from 2013!  The “very important” answer is less than half what it was just thirteen years ago.  It went from a supermajority to not even one third of the responses. As the article observes, “As recently as 2013, more than twice as many U.S. adults (70%) said college was very important.” (Shameless note: 2013 is also the year of peak enrollment.  Another bit of evidence for peak higher ed?) And the rapid takeoff of “not too important” shot up from 6% to nearly 30%, representing a five fold increase.

At the same time the leading response – not a majority, but the greatest number – was “fairly important.”  Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the sector.

After revealing that finding, Gallup broke down responses by population groups.  Their results: “The decline in the perceived importance of college is seen across all major demographic groups.”  All:

All. Democrats and Republicans, men and women, all ethnicities.  And not by a little bit.  Double digit declines, every one.  Gallup again: “Even groups that have historically placed greater importance on college have registered substantial declines.”  Not a single group viewed higher education as favorably as they used to.

What do you all make of these continued signs of declining American faith in the academy?  How do you see this playing out in terms of campus-community relations, government support, fundraising, politics?  And how should people in the academic world respond?

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