OPINION:
These days, it’s rare for anyone to challenge sacred cows, but Charlie Kirk was the exception.
He questioned one of America’s most entrenched assumptions: that everyone needs a college degree. He argued that college has become an overpriced credentialing system that fails to deliver on its age-old promises of rigorous education and better job prospects.
Kirk asked tough questions with honest curiosity and respect, and he never backed down from calling out the problems in higher education, even when it made people uncomfortable.
Genuine education demands engagement with difficult and often opposing ideas, something Charlie understood, and America’s colleges have largely ceased to provide. While the value has plummeted, the price tag has risen. Charlie Kirk brought this skepticism into mainstream discourse. Now, more than ever, people are questioning whether a college degree is worth it.
While tuition hikes have far outpaced inflation, academic standards have collapsed. Harvard University, traditionally considered the pinnacle of American academia, recently reported that more than 60% of students receive A’s, a statistic that should alarm anyone concerned about academic rigor. Harvard is not alone; this pattern of rampant grade inflation has spread across elite and state institutions alike.
When educational institutions cease to distinguish between superior and mediocre performance, they betray students who possess real ambition and merit. These young people are being shortchanged by an educational establishment more interested in customer satisfaction than intellectual development.
Grade inflation, a practical skills gap and the increasing need for catch-up coursework are widespread issues that produce students who may be happy to bring home perfect report cards, but what will happen when they face workplace conflict or criticism? They have not acquired the resilience, critical thinking or problem-solving abilities necessary to navigate professional challenges. Instead, they emerge with a false sense of accomplishment built on a shaky foundation.
The credential itself has become little more than an expensive status symbol of diminishing value, a checkbox on a resume that reveals little insight about a candidate’s intellect, skill or character. Employers increasingly recognize this reality, which explains why many are eliminating degree requirements altogether. Companies such as Google, Apple, IBM and others have discovered that a bachelor’s degree no longer guarantees competency or even basic workplace readiness.
The timing couldn’t be worse for those still betting on traditional higher education. According to a recent National Association of Colleges and Employers survey, 2026 is projected to be the worst job market for college graduates in five years. More than half of employers rate the market as “poor” or “fair,” the most pessimistic outlook since the pandemic emergency.
This situation reveals the collision of two troubling trends: skyrocketing educational costs and plummeting graduate employment prospects. Students who believed the promise of “Go to college, secure a good job, achieve success” now face a brutal reality.
They graduate jobless and drowning in debt. Those fortunate enough to find employment require an average of 11 years to recoup their investment. A decade of payments becomes a financial burden, delaying homeownership, starting a family and wealth building. Is it any wonder that nearly half of Generation Z no longer considers advancing their education important?
The social contract has been broken. The implicit agreement that hard work in the classroom would translate to economic security has collapsed under the weight of its own false promises. Parents who scraped together tuition payments believed they were investing in their children’s futures. Instead, many will soon discover they have bankrolled an increasingly poor bargain: a piece of paper with ever-decreasing purchasing power in the job market.
Yet alternatives to college exist for those willing to question the conventional path. In a job market where technical skills are becoming invaluable, apprenticeships and trade school paths have more enticing returns than a traditional four-year institution. These programs offer hands-on training, real-world experience and direct pathways to employment, often with little to no debt.
Education should be transformative and individualized, developing intellect and character while providing measurable skills for success. More and more alternatives are providing these valuable returns. The choice colleges face now is stark: reform or become obsolete. They must restore academic rigor, control costs and reconnect education to employability. If they refuse, the market will adjust around them.
These alternative credentialing systems, apprenticeships and skills-based training programs are already capturing students who recognize that education should be an investment with measurable returns, not an extended adolescence financed by catastrophic debt. This trend will only continue.
The higher education establishment has enjoyed a privileged position in American society for generations. That position was earned by institutions that once provided legitimate value: intellectual development, character formation and preparation for productive citizenship. When institutions cease to fulfill their core mission while demanding ever-greater resources, they forfeit their claim to special status.
The question is not whether change is coming to higher education. The question is whether colleges will embrace that change or be swept aside by it.
• Jorja Leavitt is the executive director of Praxis, a career accelerator that helps young adults launch their professional careers without college through hands-on business training and one-on-one mentorship.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.