Culture war has consequences for our kids and economic future
College enrollment dramatically dropped in 2021 for the second year in a row, particularly among young men, a result triggered not only by the COVID-19 pandemic but a more worrisome trend.
The shrinking proportion of young Americans participating in higher education threatens the nation’s economic competitiveness and reflects the nation’s political divide. Partisans are making everything we say, do, think and believe political talismans by which to judge others.
This culture war, though, is hurting our children.
Today, less than a third of working Americans have a college degree. In the 1960s, a high school diploma was all that most people needed to find a decent job. A full-time job making minimum wage could support a family.
Recently, I wrote about why a four-year degree is not the only path to economic success, and I stand by that. However, the jobs of the future are increasingly technical and require some postsecondary study, as demonstrated by the millions of job openings for people with advanced skills.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s goal is to have 60 percent of Texans holding some kind of advanced certificate by 2030. We’re not going to get there at this pace; young people are not pursuing the skills employers need.
Enrollment in undergraduate college classes dropped 3.2 percent this year after declining 3.4 percent last year, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Community colleges that offer vocational training for good middle-class jobs have seen enrollment drop 14.1 percent since 2019.
Young men are skipping postsecondary school education more than women. Their enrollment is down 9.3 percent since 2019 compared to women at 5 percent. Women now make up 60 percent of students at four-year universities.
The trend is sparking a debate and some pearl-clutching.
Missouri’s Sen. Josh Hawley used this national dilemma to stigmatize feminists and liberals. He calls them anti-male, antimasculinity and argues they are ruining this country for young men.
“Can we be surprised that after years of being told they are the problem, that their manhood is
the problem, more and more men are withdrawing into the enclave of idleness and pornography and video games?” the senator told a conservative gathering, according to the Washington Post.
As a center-left globalist and the son of a single mom, I call horse pucky. After seven years in the Army, I earned my degree in humanities and later reported from nine war zones. I even know how to use power tools.
As a sergeant, I trained young men and taught them to treat women with respect and reject bigotry. Such things do not ruin their spirit.
What discourages them from pursuing a university education is growing up around people who trash-talk “college boys” and deride “liberal eggheaded professors.” When elder men reject science and formal education that doesn’t fit into their worldview, young men will emulate them. I also know this from personal experience.
A new study from the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago, a relatively conservative institution, found that a Texas college student’s success was directly correlated to their family’s culture.
Students whose parents attended university tend to enroll in more lucrative majors at better colleges. They also graduate at higher rates and earn higher salaries later in life, the analysis proved. The researchers found that a university’s faculty and programs play a minimal role in a student’s success.
I understand why Hawley wants to blame liberals for everything; the culture war is a proven tactic that serves conservatives well. Nothing motivates a voter like hearing their way of life is under threat. I’ve seen it work with startling success in Rwanda, Somalia and Iraq.
Texas conservatives have joined the GOP’s national campaign to vilify educators, condemn intellectuals and ban books. Elected officials have publicly condemned my book “Forget the Alamo” because it threatens traditional myths.
Polls by Pew Research show 40 percent of Americans in 2019 believed colleges and universities were damaging the country, up from 26 percent in 2012.
Breaking down those numbers, 59 percent of people who call themselves Republican or lean Republican say college and universities have a negative effect on the country. Democrats and independents overwhelmingly approve of higher education.
Feminists are not driving young men out of universities; their anti-intellectual families and friends hold them back.
Business leaders, though, need a workforce with cuttingedge education. The nation’s economic future depends on technical skills and innovative thinking.
Making people hate our most educated scholars who train our brightest young people may make good politics for some. But the culture war is having unintended consequences on our children and economic future.