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Changing American attitudes towards higher education, according to Gallup
What do Americans think of higher education?
It seems that we are more supportive, or at least more sympathetic, than we have been lately, according to a new Gallup poll:
After worsening over the past decade, Americans’ confidence in higher education showed a modest reversal in that trend this year. The improved outlook has occurred across most societal subgroups. At a time when higher education confidence is improved but remains below the majority level, solid majorities of Americans still believe that higher education benefits individuals and society in a variety of ways, particularly by increasing knowledge, innovation and prosperity.
Gallup broke this up by subgroups, starting with race: “Confidence among Black and Hispanic Americans is slightly above the national average, at 49% and 50%, respectively.” Additionally,
Increased confidence in higher education since last year is seen among most societal subgroups, including college graduates (up six percentage points to 48%) and those without a four-year college degree (up seven points to 40%). The major U.S. political party groups show similar increases, with Democrats up five points (to 61%) and independents and Republicans up six points each (to 41% and 26%, respectively).
