A growing number of Americans are questioning the value of going to college

The share of Americans who believe colleges and universities have a positive impact on the country has dropped by 14 percentage points since 2020.

That's according to the latest results of an annual survey conducted by New America, a nonpartisan think tank. Since 2017, the organization has been collecting data on Americans' attitudes about the value of education after high school and how that education should be funded.

Many of the report's findings have remained stable over time – for example, the general consensus that post-secondary education offers a good return on investment for students remains. But there's been a steep decline in the overall perception of higher education's impact on the country.

That decline is driven by economic challenges, according to Sophie Nguyen, who co-authored the report.

The nationally representative survey included about 1,500 adults and was conducted in the spring of 2022, "when people started to feel the effects of gas price increases," Nguyen says. "People started to feel that an economic recession is actually coming."

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