Americans’ trust in higher education is on the decline, according to a new Gallup poll. This shift in confidence is being driven largely by Democrats, suggesting they are starting to realize the education system is not perfect.
From 2025 to 2026, the percentage of respondents who said they had “quite a lot” or “a great deal” of confidence in the country’s higher education system fell 4 percentage points, from 42% to 38%, according to Gallup.
While a drop of 4 points may seem small, this decrease is merely the latest data point in a yearslong trend that was interrupted between 2023 and 2025. During that two-year period, respondents indicated they had more faith in higher education institutions than they had since about 2018.
Among the 38% of people who retain confidence in colleges and universities in 2026, there is a great divide between Democrats and Republicans. Twenty-three percent of Republicans still have confidence in higher education, compared with 50% of Democrats — an all-time low.
According to the data, in 2015, 68% of Democrats had full or near-full confidence in higher education. That number has been falling consistently over the past decade and speaks to a general failure by higher education institutions to respond to changing markets and other concerns among students entering college.
Gallup asked those who are not confident in higher education what informed their views. This year, the most commonly cited concern was politics, but concerns about the costs associated with college also rose from 2025.
A May article by Forbes reported, citing the Education Data Initiative, that the average cost of tuition and fees has climbed 93.2% since 2005 and that the total cost of attendance has risen 41.7% faster than inflation — nixing the possibility of blaming the rise in prices on the economy alone.
On the surface, it is beginning to look bad for colleges and universities. Americans no longer revere institutions of higher education as inherently prestigious. On average, Americans are skeptical of the actual benefits colleges offer.
Digging deeper into the available data, we find that this shift in public sentiment has resulted in major changes in the types of schools Americans find worthwhile. A September report by American Enterprise Institute fellow Preston Cooper found that college enrollment had shifted away from “low-quality colleges” and toward those offering better post-graduation pay. On the flip side, “many state flagship institutions in the top echelon of quality increased their enrollments by 20 percent or more,” the report found.
Another shift in demand related to this change in sentiment is occurring among trade schools, which are expecting enrollment to increase by nearly 7% each year, according to a March 2025 study by the Education Writers Association. These movements away from low-quality, overpriced education show that both Democrats and Republicans have their wallets in mind when making decisions about higher education.
In short, Democrats are moving toward the Republican position that college is worthwhile so long as it is cost-effective. Fewer Democrats view college as a utopia or a necessary experience for every American. Former President Barack Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have consistently advocated college-level education for every American. These shifts in opinion suggest that these prominent Democratic figures misunderstood the importance of college to the average citizen.
CLOSE ONE LOOPHOLE TO END THE FOREIGN TAKEOVER OF HIGHER EDUCATION
However, Democrats and socialists have a point. If college were cheaper, the 30% of respondents to the Gallup poll who said they had little to no faith in collegiate institutions because of cost might reconsider their views. If the socialist dream of free college for everyone were realized, many Americans would likely begin to have greater faith in these institutions.
On the other hand, the same poll found that 31% of respondents who lack faith in colleges cited the politicization of them as a reason. Empirically, this is increasingly true. Every day, there is a new headline about a professor being allowed to teach transgender history or continuing racial tensions, even when many students disagree with the political message. More importantly, those on the Left are also realizing that political messaging or censorship in schools is contrary to the purpose of higher education.
Whenever possible, school administrations should keep politics out of the classroom. But since schools have failed to do that, it is up to the Education Department and Congress to ensure that no ideological material is forced on students — either from the Left or the Right. Neither Democrats nor Republicans want to enter college only to be subjected to doctrine fundamentally contrary to their principles.