Enormous questions confront America in this historic presidential year. But regardless of who moves into the Oval Office in January, we know this much: America will need more from our colleges and universities in 2025, not less, and we need to plan for that.
Name an area of importance to our future—training for the millions of new workers in technology and other fields, the proper role of artificial intelligence, advances in green energy, our response to climate change, the promise of genetic science. In those and countless other areas, solutions are being incubated right now on America’s college campuses.
Jamie Merisotis
That progress tends to get lost, however, amid legitimate concerns about the cost of education and its efficacy in preparing students for jobs. We get it: Higher education must do better. But some of those doubts are symptomatic of our times. Consider this:
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 81 percent of those surveyed said the economy was an issue that would be “very important” in determining how they vote. Of course. But harder to read are the views of those who look at a low 4 percent jobless rate, inflation down to 2.4 percent and wage growth of 6 percent and mistake those numbers for bad news.
Underneath the uncertainty lies the gravitational pull of supply and demand. Economists have warned for more than a decade of a coming labor shortage due to birth rates that slowed at the start of the 21st century and fell further during the Great Recession of 2008-2009.
