Preface

What do Americans hope to achieve when they enroll in education after high school? Is it a job that brings them financial well-being and stability, a life with fulfilling experiences, a chance to move up the economic ladder, or all of the above? For the past seven years, Varying Degrees, New America’s nationally representative survey on higher education, has been asking these questions, shedding light on Americans’ perspectives on the value of education after high school, whether they want higher education in the U.S. to change, and if they do, how it should change.

We have learned that a majority of Americans believe in the value that an education after high school can bring to their lives and their communities. At the same time, they would like to see colleges and universities lower the cost of education, improve the quality of educational programs, increase the transparency of student outcome data, among other changes.

The monumental events of the past seven years—political, social, economic, and global—have brought many challenges to America’s higher education system. Enrollment in higher education, while showing signs of recovery, still has not reached the level right before the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing colleges that rely heavily on tuition dollars to the brink of closure.¹ Underserved students, particularly students of color and low-income students, are faced with systemic barriers from enrolling to completing college, such as unequal access to high-quality programs, rising tuition costs and living expenses, and a completion crisis.

This summer, the Supreme Court ruled the use of affirmative action in admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina unconstitutional, restricting the use of race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities nationwide.² The decision came at the time when the diversity and inclusion movement on college campuses—which gained momentum three years ago, following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor—are facing incredible pushback, especially in states such as Florida and Texas.³

The court also ruled President Biden’s long-awaited student loan cancellation program unlawful, dealing a huge blow to his campaign promise, and shattering the hope of millions of borrowers.⁴ As federal student loan repayment is set to restart this fall after a three-year pause due to the pandemic, borrowers will need lots of assistance from the Department of Education and their servicers to avoid default.⁵

Even a ruling in favor of race-conscious admissions and student loan cancellation would not have changed the systemic inequities entrenched in our system of higher education. Grant programs that are supposed to help low-income students pay for college fail to keep up with ever-increasing costs, leaving students and families with widening financial gaps to bridge if they want to enroll.⁶ Even for students who manage to enroll, fewer than half graduate—and the problem is more dire among Black and Latinx students, whose graduation rates have trailed behind those of white students for decades.⁷ A significant number of students, disproportionately Black and Latinx, also enroll in low-quality programs at for-profit colleges, leaving them with large debt burdens and degrees of little value.⁸

The U.S. Department of Education has made great efforts to target these issues, such as finalizing a new income driven repayment plan that will make paying back student loans much more affordable, rewriting the gainful employment rule to cut off federal financial aid to low-value vocational certificate and degree programs, and creating the new Postsecondary Student Success grant programs that provide funding to colleges so that they can replicate and expand practices with evidence to improve student outcomes.⁹

While these efforts will likely have a direct impact on educational quality and student outcomes, it will take a while to see the results. And Americans’ perspectives about higher education might not shift in response or may be slow to change. A majority of Americans still do not think higher education is fine how it is, which has been one of our key findings since we conducted the survey for the first time in 2017. For opinions of higher education to trend better, Americans likely need to see consistent and effective changes to the system, including dramatically lower costs and better outcomes.

Varying Degrees this year continues to gauge Americans’ perspectives on what needs to change in higher education. To our core questions on value, funding, and accountability, we added new questions that delve into perspectives on higher education benefits to individuals and society at large, and whether college access and success are equitable. These new questions shed light on what the public’s priorities are for education after high school, and how the nation’s higher education system can be revamped to meet their needs. Americans are clear: they see the value that colleges and universities can provide, but they demand that policymakers and college administrators take action to bolster this confidence in higher education.