College Enrollees, Recent Graduates Most Optimistic about Education

President Barack Obama makes a point of linking education to social mobility. In his 2014 State of the Union address, Obama stressed making education more job-relevant and college more affordable so that all Americans have the opportunity to improve their lot in life.
On the whole, young Americans agree with this sentiment: Ninety percent of respondents to the Harvard Public Opinion Project’s survey expressed that education is important in achieving the American dream. These responses were collected on a four-point scale: “not at all important,” “not very important,” “somewhat important,” and “very important.”
But re-arranging the data uncovers a more complex picture: Americans enrolled in or just graduated from college are much more optimistic about the value of education than other groups are.
The first difference emerges if we sort data by age. Seventy-one percent of those aged 21 or 22 responded that education is “very important.” But only between 54 and 60 percent of the 18- to 20-year-olds below them and the 23- to -29-year-olds above them held the same belief. These surrounding age groups were between 10 and 17 percent more likely to respond that education is somewhat, but not very, important. Therefore, although young Americans believe in the overall importance of education at roughly equal rates, 21- and 22-year-olds hold these beliefs more strongly than their neighboring age groups do.
Sorting respondents based on educational attainment, differences emerge between Americans who attend postsecondary school and those who do not. Twenty-two percent of Americans who have not attended college believe that, although education is important in achieving the American dream, it is not strictly necessary to do so. That is, they would assert that high school and college are valuable, but that there are ways to secure a comfortable life without attending either.
In contrast, Americans who have attended any amount of college are much more likely to assert that some amount of post-secondary school is a necessity. Within this group, college graduates stand out in their confidence towards the value of education, with a full 50 percent answering that only those with at least some college background can achieve the American dream.
What might explain these results? At ages 21 and 22, many college students are starting to enter the workforce, and may be expecting their degrees to give them an advantage in securing a job. Similarly, respondents of the same age but with less education may feel the stress of job market competition with those who do have higher degrees. Notably, older age groups are less optimistic about the value of college education; it may be that college graduates get less mileage out of their degrees than they had hoped, or that those without degrees find ways to compensate.
Regardless of the aspirations of young Americans, their beliefs about the value of education may have little influence on public debate for the time being. Although younger twenty-somethings are more optimistic about the value of education, all age groups similarly approve of how the Obama administration has handled student debt. (The strongest division between approval and disapproval falls along party lines, suggesting that party affiliation will continue to dominate the political process.)
In the broader context, Americans as a whole are much more focused on other issues. Twenty-five percent of respondents were most concerned about the economy, 9 percent about jobs, 5 percent about the debt and deficit, and 4 percent about employment and unemployment. This combined 45 percent of respondents concerned about the economy and related topics dwarfs the 7 percent most worried about education and the 1 percent most worried about student debt. Politicians likely have little to gain by focusing heavily on education and student debt when Americans’ minds are still on the economy at large. Those who do want to steer discourse towards education would do well to phrase their arguments in terms of the economy.
Mariel Klein contributed to the reporting of this article.