Most Americans Think College Is Out of Reach
That’s bad news, given the increasing importance of a college degree
People protest against student debt at Washington Square Park in New York’s Greenwich Village
Photographer: Max Lib/FlickrThis article is for subscribers only.
Most Americans believe people who want to go to college can get in somewhere—they just don’t think they’d be able to afford it, according to a new Gallup-Lumina Foundation poll.
While 61 percent of adults believe education beyond high school is available to anyone who needs it, only 21 percent agree that it’s affordable, according to the poll results, released on Thursday. Some racial groups were much more optimistic than others. Fifty-one percent of Hispanic adults said higher education is still affordable, Gallup found. Just 19 percent of black adults and 17 percent of white adults agreed.