Today’s NYT’s Daily podcast reports some shocking statistics about Americans’ fading faith in higher education.  In 2010, about 98% American parents want their kids to go to college. Today, that number stands at roughly 50%. During the same period, the number of college enrollments dropped from about 18 million to less than 16 million, despite a 7% increase in total population.

So why is the dramatic change of heart? The podcast offers three reasons, if my memory serves me well.  First, college education no longer makes as much economic sense as it used to.  While college-goers in 1960s and 1970s enjoyed both wage premiums and wealth premiums, life-time wealth accumulation have significantly declined, in some cases disappeared altogether, for younger generations, partly because college has become so much more expensive. Second, colleges are increasingly perceived as liberal hotbeds that could barely tolerate conservatives, much less welcome them.  Third, higher education reinforced a deeply held belief that American institutions are rigged to favor elites, whose kids have dominated the campuses of the best colleges.  At the gate of these colleges, the children of the “working class” are forced to play a meritocracy game that they have no chance to win.  So, they quit.

Surprisingly, this well-reasoned analysis does not mention the intrinsic value of education. While college education does produce a piece of paper that certifies one’s worth in the job market, it also provides something that is hard to articulate and measure but is vital to the betterment of individual lives, as well as the functioning of civilized society at large.  For over a half century, the higher education system in the US has been very successful selling to the parents the notion that college is a wonder investment with only upsides.   The current revolt by the parents suggests it might have overplayed that marketing strategy.