FOUND! The Worst Writing on Earth … Anti-College Journalism

Another day, another hatchet job on higher education, this one from the Washington Examiner (Wikipedia describes it as “an American conservative news outlet”[1]):

The higher education bubble is finally bursting

Does the Washington Examiner mean “honestly” bursting? Or do they mean we’re-gonna-spin-it-by-half-reporting-and-half-ignoring-the-data bursting?

As is typical of higher ed journalism, I believe it’s the latter.

Data Isn’t Cake; You Can’t Cut It into Slices

So it’s DOOM! (yes, all caps) for higher education (at least that’s what the Washington Examiner implies):

There are emerging signs that high schoolers are souring on the value of an undergraduate degree.

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center [NSC], which tracks higher education enrollment, released the latest numbers last week for the fall 2024 semester. What the data show is a slow but massive shift in the public’s approach to postsecondary education that may destroy the reputational and institutional power of traditional four-year college attendance.

But could there be maybe, possibly, surely (insert sarcasm) more NSC data–positive data–to report? Odd … for some reason, the Washington Examiner neglected to report this[2]:

Enrollment in undergraduate programs is up 3% in early reporting this fall compared to similar early data from fall 2023, indicating a second straight year of undergraduate enrollment growth, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s latest report.

All sectors are seeing growth in undergraduate enrollment overall, ranging from a 1.4 increase at private non-profit 4-year institutions to 4.7 percent at public 2-year and 5.2 percent at public PAB institutions.

Both bachelor’s (+1.9%) and associate degree (+4.3%) programs are seeing enrollment gains this fall. Graduate programs are also seeing enrollment gains (+2.1%) for a preliminary estimate of 2.9% annual growth for total postsecondary enrollment this fall.

This seems kind of important as to whether or not the “higher education bubble is finally…