The Harvard Public Opinion Project’s most recent results reveal an overwhelming consensus among young Americans that education is an important factor in achieving the American dream. Perhaps this result is unsurprising for a pool of young respondents of whom 88 percent had completed either high school or some college. For a group ages 18 to 29, this means that half or more of their lives have been spent immersed in some sort of school environment. Meanwhile, asking young Americans whether or not education is a necessary factor in achieving the American dream begs various other questions: Why? How much education? What kind? And what does the American dream mean?
The data shows no clear consensus among young Americans on how much education is necessary. The plurality of respondents (35 percent) believe that some college education or a community college degree is sufficient to achieve the American dream. Yet substantial numbers also believe that a high school education is sufficient (20 percent) or, on the other extreme, that nothing short of a bachelor’s degree is sufficient (17 percent). It seems that while broad educational experiences are valued, specialization beyond even community college degrees is considered to be superfluous if the goal is to achieve the amorphous vision of the American dream. This pessimistic valuation of a four-year college education might also be a product of the rising cost of tuition that outpaces the growth of middle class income. In other words, many young Americans believe that the returns on an investment in education past high school no longer justify sapping the family’s financial reserves.
Meanwhile, data regarding different educational subjects also presents interesting patterns. While the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2014 allocated a whopping $3.1 billion to improving STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, only 32 percent of the young Americans polled agreed that curricula should shift focus to STEM at the expense of focusing on the arts. Especially after the recent buzz surrounding the “death” of the humanities and the slowly depreciating value of the liberal arts education on the job market, it is puzzling that young Americans, who are presumably concerned with employment, are not in favor of increasing the amount of the apparently more practical STEM education. It is possible that young Americans do not necessarily believe that jobs requiring education in STEM fields are overtaking those requiring education in the arts. Indeed, this has been a point of contention.
At a deeper level, perhaps the traditional linkage between jobs and education is incongruous with young Americans’ present-day ideals. The supposed tension between young Americans’ desire for employment and their disinterest in STEM funding is based on the assumption that the purpose of education is to serve as a conduit to employment. This assumption is reinforced by the fact that the 90 percent of Americans who believe education is necessary for achieving the American dream also believe that education is necessary because it leads to employment. However, it is important to question these assumptions and examine how the path to the American dream and post-secondary education are positioned in the minds of young Americans.
Indeed, the low interest in four-year degrees and STEM education is perhaps indicative of the alternative avenues to employment now available to young Americans. Formal education might be losing the race to outside resources, online education, and opportunities for entrepreneurship. The fame of college dropouts Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Michael Dell may contribute to the idea that school is not necessarily instrumental to success. The American dream, for young Americans, might consist of more than the formulaic job, house, and family.
Mariel Klein contributed to the reporting of this article.