Maybe the lazy rivers on campus just don't have the draw. Or maybe the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) deans and watered-down academic standards are diluting the value proposition.

Maybe it’s the red-hot job market. Maybe it’s the culture war in which “elites” are increasingly held in contempt by the working and middle class. Certainly, it has to do with the price tag and the prospect of massive debt.

Whatever the exact makeup of causes, more and more Americans doubt the value of college.

College is “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off,” replied 56% of American adults in a poll by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Only 42% believed college was worth the cost.

This is part of a long-term trend, it seems. In 2017, the NORC poll found Americans evenly split on the value of college. Back in 2013, Americans were very positive about college, with 53% saying it is worth it and only 40% saying it is not. The negative shift over that decade is mostly Americans over age 50 — younger Americans have consistently seen the costs as outweighing the benefits.

And young folks have been acting on their beliefs: College enrollment dropped by 8% from 2019 to 2022, thanks largely to the pandemic sending instruction to Zoom. “Largely left on their own amid remote learning, many took part-time jobs,” the Associated Press reported . “Some felt they weren’t learning anything , and the idea of four more years of school, or even two, held little appeal.”

With unemployment down to 3.7%, it’s a lot easier for a kid to get a job right out of high school. This dynamic will only get stronger in a few years, when the number of 18-year-olds starts shrinking, and keeps shrinking thanks to the Baby Bust that began in 2008.

The shrinking population of college students and college graduates will surely alter the workforce in ways that have economists and employers worried. It will, of course, also affect colleges.

Institutions of higher education across America have been preparing for this Armageddon for a few years. The late 2020s and the 2030s will see a wave of colleges closing and others consolidating or desperately seeking new ways to hang on.

Who knows? Maybe they’ll try cutting their tuition by getting rid of the lazy river and a couple of diversity staffers.