The College Degree Is Not Losing Value

For a half century, the most recession-proof story in mainstream journalism has been declaring that college degrees aren’t recession-proof. Every economic downturn produces headlines warning that diplomas have lost—or are losing—their value. “Two things about these stories have remained constant,” Kevin Carey, who currently directs the education policy program at New America, wrote in The New Republic in 2011. “They always feature an over-educated bartender, and they are always wrong.”  

The genre dates back at least to the 1970s, when the Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman warned in his book The Overeducated American that too many people were earning degrees and that their long-term wages would suffer. The New York Times splashed the argument across its front page in 1975: “After generations during which going to college was assumed to be a sure route to the better life, college-educated Americans are losing their economic advantage.” But within the decade, the opposite happened: The wage premium for graduates soared, and it has only gone up more ever since.  

Read the full article in Washington Monthly: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/09/30/the-college-degree-is-not-losing-value/