Writing at CCAP’s blog, Andy Gillen weighs in on the recent Pew poll finding that a high percentage of college grads agree that “college was a good investment for them personally.” He contends that this is far less meaningful than defenders of the higher ed establishment suppose it to be. (That includes Peter Sacks, who in his recent attack on “elitist” people like Rich Vedder and me, argued that this poll undermines our “anti-expansionist” position.) Gillen sensibly observes that polling college graduates misses a very large segment of the higher-ed population, namely those who start college but never earn a degree. The debate over the merits of expanding college “access” is largely about those marginal students who are lured into college but can’t finish. Secondly, Gillen points out that simply having completed college gives people a sense of ownership that makes them less apt to give a negative assessment about it.

A much better question than the vague “has college been a good personal investment” would be: “Did you learn anything in college that is essential to your ability to do the work you now do?” My suspicion is that few could honestly say that they would be unable to do their jobs but for their college learning.