Declining College Enrollment Should Be a Wake-Up Call to Reformers

Students walk and sit outside on Quad lawn of University of Illinois college campus in Urbana Champaign, Ill., on April 17, 2016. Leigh Trail/Shutterstock

Commentary

The United States continues to see a dramatic decline in the number of students attending college, with 1 million fewer students now enrolled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Americans’ perception of higher education has also changed considerably.