Pricking the Bubble

Abstract

Our special section in this issue, “The Higher Education Bubble,” continues the discussion that we began in our previous number. The idea is spreading that the college degree no longer delivers enough bang for the considerable buck it costs, and therefore demand for it will shortly decline. In the Fall 2011 AQ we made a case that a college bubble exists. In this issue, six of our writers offer ideas on what higher education might look like if and when the bubble bursts or deflates. Perhaps with a dash of contrariety, however, we begin with “The Liberal Arts Bubble,” by John Agresto, who doubts that we will see a bubble bursting anytime soon. Agresto believes that “the federal government will continue to pour billions into higher education—not because it’s rational, but because the American people have been persuaded that it’s somehow disgraceful not to give all a society can to the education industry. Anything less is to shortchange the next generation and consign America to permanent international second-class status.” What Agresto does discuss is the bubble before the bubble, so to speak—the one that has already deflated—the collapse of the liberal arts as predominant among student majors today: