Americans are sitting out college—to the tune of a million since the beginning of the pandemic. This is important not only for the lives of each of those individuals, but also for our society as a whole.
The Hechinger Report draws out the implications of this shift for our culture. They write,
“People without education past high school earn significantly less than classmates who go on to earn bachelor’s degrees and are more likely to live in poverty and less likely to be employed. They’re more prone to depression, live shorter lives, need more government assistance, pay less in taxes, divorce more frequently and vote and volunteer less often.”
