Amid rising prices and questions about higher education, fewer and fewer young people are going to college, and that’s bad for all of us.
Four years after the official declaration of a global pandemic in March 2020, we are still seeing COVID-19 fatigue in higher education. Fewer and fewer high-level students are opting into school since the pandemic, Inside Higher Ed reported. The next few months will be finding out if this rate will hold for the next school year.
Here’s why the upcoming high school year matters: The school enrollment rate for recent high school graduates was 70% in 2016. In the last two years, it was 62%.
Yes, there is smart education and schooling opportunities outside of college, and academics are taking advantage of them. In fact, when the Lumina Foundation has high-quality certificates and industry certifications, as well as school degrees, the percentage of Americans with those valuable degrees has increased, particularly since 2009.
Here’s the overlooked story about higher education: Millions more people are getting the education they need to get smart jobs. Unfortunately, doing better isn’t enough. Here are three reasons why we want more people with college degrees:
– So that they can earn a living. Over the next decade, more than two-thirds of smart jobs (those that offer decent wages and benefits) will require at least some school education. As a recent report by the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce points out, “post-secondary education is no longer just the preferred option for middle-class jobs: it is, increasingly, the only path. “
– United States wants talent. The United States Chamber of Commerce says its members face unprecedented demands when it comes to filling tasks. “We have 9. 5 million job openings in the United States, but only 6. 5 million unemployed,” the House said in a recent report on the shortage of hard work in the United States. “If every single unemployed user in the country discovered a task, we would still have about 3 million tasks available. “
– We compete globally. The United States ranks fifth among OECD countries in the percentage of population with a post-momentary degree. However, among the 10 most sensible countries, the United States ranks second in terms of expansion between 2010 and 2021.
We all suffer from the fact that fewer and fewer students continue their studies and study beyond high school. And while a bachelor’s degree is the right solution for everyone, students who can pursue it can make really significant gains in their income over the course of their lives.
There are arguments for this, such as a recent New York Times op-ed that highlighted some of the university’s misrepresentations as a breeding ground for liberal indoctrination. The repeated attacks have shaken public support, even as wealthy families continue to send their own young people to earn a bachelor’s degree.
To gauge the true mood of the public, the Gallup poll is used. Despite declining confidence in higher education, the study shows that nearly three-quarters of all adults still have a school degree as important, or higher, as they were 20 years ago.
Many of the nation’s governors got the message, as evidenced by this year’s State of the State addresses. FutureEd analyzed 38 of the speeches and found that governors from both parties tended to downplay controversies over the culture war and focus on really big investments in education. and task training.
“Leaders from 17 states have announced plans to expand dual enrollment in top schools and colleges, earn associate degrees, and create scholarship opportunities,” according to FutureEd magazine.
There is a growing sense of urgency in the proposals of the States. Remote work and learning during the pandemic helped drive the equivalent of 10 years of in-office technology replacement in less than a year, according to the National Skills Coalition. The organization found that only about one-third of U. S. workers have few or no virtual skills, though about 40 percent of them work in jobs that require at least moderate computer use.
Of all the challenges in schooling – and there are many – the biggest ones are not the ones cited by critics of school attendance. Judging by the pressing efforts of states to increase their skills pools, the biggest challenge in education is this: we don’t have enough.
A community. Many voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.
Our network aims to connect other people through open and thoughtful conversations. We need our readers to share their perspectives and exchange concepts and facts in one space.
To do so, please comply with the posting regulations in our site’s terms of use. Below we summarize some of those key regulations. In short, civilians.
Your message will be rejected if we notice that it appears to contain:
User accounts will be blocked if we become aware or if users are concerned about:
So how can you be a user?
Thank you for reading our Community Standards. Read the full list of posting regulations discovered in our site’s Terms of Use.