American Confidence in College Degree Plummets, Fox News Poll Finds
The faith of American voters in the value of a college education has cratered over the past two decades, according to a new Fox News poll that captures a wholesale shift in how the public weighs the costs and benefits of a degree.
In 2006, 65% of voters said a student with $100,000 should spend it on college tuition rather than invest the money and head straight into the workforce. At the same time, 84% believed college was more important to success than it had been 25 years earlier. Fast-forward to today, and those numbers have all but inverted.
Now, two-thirds of voters (65%) say prospective college-goers should invest the money and start working instead. More than 6 in 10 say a degree is less, rather than more, important to success than it was a generation ago. The erosion cuts across every major demographic group — age, education level, party affiliation — with each cohort now overwhelmingly holding the opposite view from 2006.
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The poll also finds that three-quarters of voters now say a college degree is not worth obtaining at any cost — up from a split 46% agree / 49% disagree two decades ago. Only 27% currently believe a degree is worth it regardless of expense.
When asked what they would recommend to a high school student today, a majority of parents said they would urge them to skip college and invest the money instead. That stark advice reflects a broader skepticism about the return on investment, even as voters acknowledge certain strengths in higher education.
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Majorities still express confidence that universities provide a high-quality education (72%), protect free speech (63%), offer fair learning environments (62%), respect students regardless of political views (60%), and prepare graduates for the workforce (58%). Yet that confidence crumbles when it comes to finances: only 45% believe colleges put students ahead of profits — the one area in which skepticism outweighs trust.
The divide is particularly sharp along party lines. While Democrats and independents express broad confidence across most metrics, Republicans are far more skeptical. For example, only 39% of Republicans have confidence that universities put students ahead of profits, compared with 50% of Democrats and independents. Similarly, just 54% of Republicans say colleges protect free speech, versus 70% of Democrats and 64% of independents.
“Voters in both parties have a beef with higher education, but the grievance is particularly acute among Republicans,” said Daron Shaw, a Republican pollster who helps conduct the Fox News Poll alongside Democrat Chris Anderson. “They not only think universities are too expensive but also that they have been captured by woke, leftist administrators and professors.”
Other demographic splits are notable. Younger voters (under 30) are more likely than seniors (65+) to believe universities prioritize students over profits (54% vs. 38%). Black and Hispanic voters are significantly more trusting than White voters on that question (61% each vs. 41%). And parents are somewhat more confident than non-parents (52% vs. 43%).
The poll’s findings come amid a broader national reckoning over college affordability, student loan debt — which now exceeds $1.7 trillion — and a tightening labor market where many high-paying trade jobs do not require a degree. The data suggest that the pandemic-era shift toward remote work and skills-based hiring has accelerated public disillusionment with the traditional four-year path.
Still, education experts caution that the reversal may oversimplify the long-term earnings premium associated with a bachelor’s degree. While the short-term calculus looks less favorable, studies continue to show that college graduates, on average, earn significantly more over a lifetime than those without a degree.
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Conducted May 15–18, 2026, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 1,002 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (109) and cellphones (635) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (258). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter file data.
Original article source: Fox News Poll: Faith in higher education in the US is collapsing