The Anti-College Movement

Is it here to stay?

This April I visited Spokane, WA for the first time to attend the SuperACAC conference. A combined gathering of college admission professionals from the Rocky Mountains and westward, it was three days of workshops, talks, and networking all in support of students engaging in the postsecondary planning process.

While the workshops I attended were terrific, there was an underlying message that we, as a group of professionals, didn’t seem to explore very well: The anti-college movement. Certainly there were messages within the workshops that alluded to this movement, including a focus on career-readiness, supporting student anxiety, and moving students and support teams away from brand-name-only college consideration. But the topic of anti-college, specifically, didn’t come up.

This is a movement that needs our attention. It is a growing sentiment amongst our young people and many adults. I’m not saying that college is for everyone, but the movement direly opposed to attending college is something that we should and need to be talking about.

Rise of the anti-college movement

I first came across the idea of the anti-college movement on Facebook in 2017/2018. Many of my hometown friends were dialoguing about how college wasn’t worth it, how continued learning in college was a waste of time, and how so many of our modern social problems (e.g. volume of debt, under-employment, gentrification) would be solved if so many people simply didn’t go to college.

I read their arguments and was pressed in my thinking. As a first-generation college graduate, a person who believes in the value and purpose of college learning, and a person who helps coach students to continue to learn after high school, the arguments hit a nerve. I was immediately drawn to rebuttal, but in the midst of typing a heated note to a person I knew in high school (now more than 20 years ago), I realized that it was not a debate I wanted to have on a Facebook message board.

Then I saw the same argument playing out with some family members.

Then I read this New York Times Opinion piece by Molly Worthen.

Then I read this article from The Atlantic by “Professor X”.

The movement was growing right before me, and my personal experience was causing a legitimate lack of awareness. I needed to dig in deeper and figure out what was going on, which is the path I am on right now.

What is the anti-college movement?

The anti-college movement is a set of feelings, dispositions, and actions by individuals who see the push for everyone to go to college as a disservice to society and to their individual family and/or community. But rather than simply disparaging college attendance, individuals in this movement actively promote the worthlessness of college learning to any/everyone that they encounter.

This definition is a bit more extreme than what Worthen promotes in their article, which focuses on alternatives to college. It promotes a backlash to intellectualism, that colleges are elitist, debt-mongering, not serving our young people, and that postsecondary learning should just be about skill development.

Much of this movement is rooted in truth. The modern college degree feels like it takes a long time (compared to the usual lightening pace of social media or other instantly gratifying elements of our society). College campuses have invested billions in things like rock walls, sports facilities, administrator salaries, and library facilities, which feel frivolous when considering how easily accessible learning can be these days. Because of the boom in degree attainment, some young people with biology or psychology (or many other) degrees, high with hope in their learning paths, have returned home to work at jobs which don’t necessarily require their qualifications.

All of these circumstances have collied with the Biden administration’s attempt to help alleviate trillions of dollars in student loan debt. This has placed the cost, results, and pathway to college degree attainment in the crosshairs of the American public, thus birthing the anti-college movement.

The exceptionally troubling issue of student loan debt

One of the driving forces behind the anti-college movement is student loan debt. Many young people walk away from their college experience having to pay $150-$600 per month to service their debt. Nevermind the payments often required of parents who took out additional student loans to support their young person’s attendance.

Parent choices here are made in love, and it’s difficult for me to condemn individual support team decisions. Yet, when a college places a Parent Plus Loan on the table for $60,000 per year ($240,000 of parent-owned debt upon graduation!), and the parent is forced into a situation that requires they deny their child’s “dream”, it becomes an ethically questionable situation. The parent wishes to do best by their young person, support their future, and promote learning. The college has offered an opportunity to do so, but at an exceptional cost. This has led to a spiraling student and family debt crisis that is nearly untenable, and has the potential to lead to generations of entrenched debt-based poverty.

When facing this situation, I find solace in Melody Warnick’s article from Slate entitled “I Killed My Teenager’s Fancy College Dreams. You Should, Too”. But I know that not every family situation is similar to the one Warnick highlights, and the student debt landscape requires distinctly anti-college action to remedy.

Job market and an uncertain future

Evolution of the job market as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has further exasperated the ant-college movement. In the small town I live in, the McDonald’s is hiring Crew Members at $15+ per hour. The offer a signing bonus (immediate cash on hand for the new employee), and a super flexible schedule.

This need for places such as McDonald’s or Taco Bell or other small local businesses to offer a higher wage to attract works has decreased the perceived need for attending college. Why would a person need a Bachelor’s degree if they can make immediate money now working at McDonald’s?

This further points to the uncertain future that young people see for themselves. They watched as their most consistent institution (school) was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. They saw their caregivers lose jobs, be displaced, and bring into question their retirement and other future plans.

Why would a young person place a bet on college learning when their future seems so unpredictable?

Pile on factors such as climate change, a tumultuous political landscape, and an ambiguous future job landscape, and it seems like making money now – at $15+ per hour no less – is a much safer and straightforward bet.

Supporting diverse learning opportunities

From my perspective, the roots of the anti-college movement are not going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, they are likely to continue to deepen and widen as further ambiguity is introduced into the lives of young people and their support teams. This means I (and hopefully we as a society) need to pivot in our support and understanding of what continued learning means.

Certainly there are trade-schools and programs that provide tangible skills and direct pathways for employment. Community college continues to be a stalwart hub for ongoing development and dedication to classroom learning.

But maybe we should consider pathways that are even less traditional than these two options. What if external providers could provide credentials that students could pursue that are industry standard in nature? Much like Adobe does with its qualified credential. (If only we could improve our elearning experiences to be actually worthwhile… but that’s a subject for another article). How can we support the development of credentialing systems that could truly support the engaged, purposeful, and useful ongoing learning of those who wish to pursue this path?

We have the potential to innovate, ideate, and offer these changes right now. The technology is available. The landscape is fertile. The young people are interested.