Public Confidence in Higher-Ed Is Hemorrhaging

Written By James Bacon

I started sounding the alarm years ago: Through soaring tuition and leftist orthodoxy, higher-ed institutions would lose the support of a broad swath of the American people. At some point, parents rebel against paying small fortunes to have their kids indoctrinated to reject their values. As the latest Gallup poll shows, a steadily declining percentage of Americans express confidence in higher education.Predictably, the decline over the past decade has been sharpest among Republicans, whose values are most reviled in academia. The decline among Democrats, who are far more likely to feel a philosophical kinship with campus progressives, has been modest. (See the Gallup numbers.)I would love to see the same question asked about Virginia's system of higher education as a whole, and for individual institutions, too. I would conjecture that resentment is strongest against "elite" institutions where progressivism is the strongest.Obviously, there are many progressives in the general population, so some people are just fine with what's happening on college campuses. But if you alienate half your potential market, you're in big trouble. -- JAB

James Bacon

After a 25-year career in Virginia journalism, James A. Bacon founded Bacon’s Rebellion in 2002 a blog with the goal of “Reinventing Virginia for the 21st Century.” Its focus is on building more prosperous, livable and sustainable communities. In recent years he has concentrated more on the spread of “woke” ideology in K-12 schools, the criminal justice system, higher education, and medicine.

In 2021, he co-founded The Jefferson Council to preserve free speech, intellectual diversity, and the Jeffersonian legacy at his alma mater the University of Virginia. He previously served as the organization’s executive director, now serving as congributing editor.

Aside from blogging, Bacon writes books. His first was Boomergeddon: How Runaway Deficits Will Bankrupt the Country and Ruin Retirement for Aging Baby Boomers — And What You Can Do About It, followed by Maverick Miner: How E. Morgan Massey Became a Coal Industry Legend and a work of science fiction, Dust Mites: the Siege of Airlock Three.

A Virginian through-and-through, Bacon lives in Richmond with his wife Laura.

https://www.baconsrebellion.com/wp/
Previous

Empty, Airy Words
Next

A Tale of Two UNESCO World Heritage Sites