Overall, it is good that Americans are coming to this conclusion. I say "Americans" because it is not strictly a conservative or liberal conclusion but one that is largely shared across the political and economic spectrum. In the poll, just 33% agree a four-year college degree is “worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime,” while 63% agree more with the concept that it’s “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off.” The cost has forced Americans to raise the basic question of the value of a typical college or university education. In comparison to the cost, what is gained? Since the baccalaureate education has become more vocation based and less liberal arts, the first place this is being felt is in the job market and the ability of these grads to turn their expensive degrees into a high income. The next question must certainly go to what is being taught and how impractical these practical educations have become. If they fail to provide a real education in the classic sense of that term and if they cannot translate this into a higher paycheck when entering the workforce, then what value are our colleges and universities to us overall?
There was a time when Americans overall agreed that a university education provided something of real value. Yes, part of it was as practical as a living wage but the other part of it was the value of learning and the confidence that learning was happening in universities. With the ideology of the typical faculty and curriculum diverging farther and farther from the moderate middle and with the rise of vocal criticism from the right, colleges and universities are hard pressed to justify not only the cost but the time invested. This is not because there is no value to education but because agendas have shifted education from the core purpose and propaganda replaced facts. Whether he realized it or not, a college graduate serving as a bartender said it well: Jacob Kennedy, a 28-year-old server and bartender living in Detroit, said that while he believes “an educated populace is the most important thing for a country to have,” but, if people can’t use those degrees for vocational purpose or real benefit to themselves or their community over all, what is the value?
There hasn’t just been a decline in the cost-benefit analysis of a degree. Gallup polling also shows a marked decline in public confidence in higher education over the last decade, albeit with a slight increase over the last year. This is a political problem. It’s also a real problem for higher education. Colleges and universities have lost that connection they’ve had with a large swath of the American people based on affordability and practicality. Now, they are more universally seen as out of touch and not accessible to many Americans. I wonder. How does this affect our church colleges and universities? How is this same loss of confidence working in the debate over the value of a residential seminary? It could not be a coincidence but a reflection of the times in which we live. That is something worth considering as we debate this topic in the church. The same people complaining about a seminary education may be those who are raising this challenge with respect to a baccalaureate setting.
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I believe in the worth of a liberal arts education to individual growth, even if one finds it may not lead to a career path. Sure, it is essential for those pursuing an academic position in the field of education, but even if one works in a field where college courses are not relevant to their occupation, there are gains of insights and measured critical thinking.skills which cannot be dismissed. Of course, it depends on the quality of the education received. Many colleges and universities in past years have been institutions of “lower learning,” having embraced social and political activism, woke ideology, and propaganda. The ideal liberal arts education embraces literature, history, economics, and various viewpoints while aspiring to find objective truth. On the other hand, secular humanism and social relativism teach truth as subjective, and places ideas on an equal footing. To add to the benefits and pitfalls of higher education is the economic cost. One cannot ignore the notion that higher education may or may not lead to a good job or upward mobility. And furthermore, how does higher education influence or detract from individuals in their relationship to God and the church? Perhaps, Christian students might do well to remember that their relationship to Christ is fundamentally more important to their lives, and choose Christian universities and schools over public and private ones. There are many to choose from, like Grand Canyon University, Concordia, Liberty University among others, which highlight Christian values, while maintaining excellent academic standards. The value of a Christian education at the college level cannot be emphasized enough. I wish I had gone to a Christian college myself, but there were none close by, and I earned my BA through night classes. For some, the option of a Christian college is unavailable. Soli Deo Gloria
In its October 24-28, 2025, Hart Research Associates poll (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26310998-nbc-news-october-2025-poll/) NBC News’ sole question of whether a four-year college degree is worth the cost does not distinguish between a four-year college STEM degree and a degree in basket weaving, feminist studies, black history studies, transgender studies or some nihilistic leftwing philosophy.
The poll interviewed 1,000 registered voters (including 655 via cellphone and 300 via online survey). One wonders how many of the registered voters were U.S. citizens, Somali daycare owners, or illegal aliens.
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