This is the least confident generation in American history. Generations of divisive politics have taken its toll on young American’s relationships with traditional institutions from churches to government to colleges and universities. When 2200 adults were asked by the Bipartisan Policy Center if college provided the best path to future success only 60% said yes. That’s a sharp difference from the opinion of employers (90%).
But, our data (confirmed by almost any other contemporary dataset) give little doubt. A college degree remains the most certain path to achieve financial successes, economic freedom and stability.
Going back to the great recession when unemployment rates hit 10% and black unemployment reached 17% the unemployment rate of college graduates peaked at 5%. We seen an echo of that outcome today, in the middle of this pandemic, where Raj Chetty at Harvard’s Opportunity Insights has been talking about a K-shaped economic recovery. Those Americans who possess a college degree, for the most part, are working from home, while those without experienced unemployment rates unheard of since the Great Depression.
We know that college works. There are few things more reliable than investing in a college degree. In Bryan Caplan’s book, The Case Against Education, he highlights that if a college degree were a stock in the stock market it would outperform the S&P 500 by 2.4x and simultaneously be the most consistent performer in history.
What we need to be asking is why the public has lost trust in such a consistently good investment? What changed the narrative around going to college and how we can give a new generation of students the confidence necessary to enroll.
We believe that insuring their college degree, thereby guaranteeing their earnings after graduation is the best way to take the perceived risk out of attending college. With Degree Insurance students can trust in the value of their institution and their degree.
Leave a Reply