Majority Of Americans Doubt College's Value — Formal Debate Is Proposed To Rebuild Critical Thinking

A recent national survey finds that, for the first time in a dozen years, a majority of Americans no longer believe a college degree is worth its cost. Confidence in higher education has fallen sharply across the political spectrum amid soaring costs, ideological polarization on campus, and concerns about academic quality.

Rising Costs And Debt

Americans now carry nearly $2 trillion in student-loan debt under a federal lending system designed to reduce reliance on private banks. While intended to expand access, this system has coincided with rapidly rising tuition: college costs have roughly doubled since 1995. Critics say lending practices have encouraged enrollment by students at high risk of dropping out, leaving some with precarious repayment burdens. Plans to use loan forgiveness as a broad political incentive have also generated public backlash and attracted legal scrutiny.

Campus Climate And Political Polarization

Many observers point to a growing doctrinaire tone in higher education. Surveys indicate rising tolerance among some students for disruptive tactics: the FIRE survey found that the share of students who say violence against a campus speaker they disagree with can be justified rose from 25 percent to 33 percent in a two-year span. At the same time, there have been troubling incidents of harassment and exclusion targeting Jewish students and others, further alarming parents and the public.

Political leanings among faculty and the effect of college on student partisanship are also debated. One recent academic survey concluded that, on average, college majors increase attachment to the Democratic Party by about 6 percent by graduation. In 2024, reports showed that political donations by educators favored Democratic candidates by roughly 85 percent—data points that feed concerns about ideological imbalance on campus.

Economic Returns And Academic Rigor

Historically, a college degree signaled a reliable economic premium. That advantage appears to be narrowing: job prospects for recent graduates and their ability to meet employers’ expectations have weakened in some fields. Employers and educators report gaps in workplace preparedness that suggest declining academic rigor in certain programs.

Artificial intelligence is intensifying these challenges. Both students and faculty increasingly use AI chatbots such as ChatGPT for research and drafting, but these systems can produce inaccurate or unverifiable information. A study associated with the National Institutes of Health found that 64 percent of the sources suggested by ChatGPT could not be located, illustrating the risk of amplifying misinformation when AI is used uncritically.

Demographic Pressures

These problems coincide with demographic shifts: the domestic pool of high-school graduates is shrinking, and tighter policies have reduced the inflow of some international students. Colleges now compete for a smaller, more skeptical population of prospective students, increasing financial pressure on institutions and potentially incentivizing short-term recruitment over long-term academic quality.

Debate Education As A Remedy

Is reform possible? The author argues that formal debate instruction — introduced across K–12 and college curricula — can help rebuild critical thinking, civic habits, and civil discourse. Debate requires students to read actively, organize evidence, respond quickly, and defend positions under time limits. These skills encourage intellectual humility, rigorous analysis, and the ability to listen to opposing views.

There are promising examples: a recent program in Brooklyn schools demonstrated measurable gains in student engagement and reasoning in difficult educational settings. Debate’s emphasis on turn-taking, equal speaking time, and reasoned rebuttal maps directly onto the civic practices needed for healthier public discourse.

Conclusion

The challenges facing American higher education are complex—economic, pedagogical, and cultural. Expanding debate education is no single cure, but it is a practical, low-cost tool that can be integrated across disciplines to cultivate the critical-thinking and civic skills that many observers now find alarmingly scarce.

Ben Voth, Ph.D. is Professor of Rhetoric and Director of Debate at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He is the author of several academic books on debate, political communication, presidential rhetoric, and genocide, and serves as the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation debate fellow.

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