High school stu­dents skep­ti­cal of col­lege degree val­ue: Study

A grow­ing num­ber of high school stu­dents and nonen­rolled adults are find­ing col­lege degrees less valu­able, a new study found.
While majori­ties in both groups see val­ue in two- and four-year uni­ver­si­ties, those edu­ca­tion­al options rank in the “mid­dle of the pack” com­pared to alter­na­tives such as on-the-job train­ing, licens­es, and cer­tifi­cates, accord­ing to the Bill and Melin­da Gates Foun­da­tion-com­mis­sioned study pub­lished last week.
“The mes­sage stu­dents received dur­ing the pan­dem­ic was clear: Edu­ca­tion is not impor­tant. High­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions have fur­ther deval­ued them­selves by inflat­ing grades, elim­i­nat­ing mer­it, and focus­ing on DEI ini­tia­tives,” Alex Nester, inves­tiga­tive fel­low for edu­ca­tion advo­ca­cy group Par­ents Defend­ing Edu­ca­tion, told the Wash­ing­ton Exa …