Just as the Republicans’ default solution to any domestic problem is “lower taxes,” Democrats insist on “more education, especially college education.” But this obsession with education is misplaced, and in some cases actually harmful to the project of building “a more perfect union.” A better tactic for Democrats would be to raise wages through government policies, especially those aimed at workers without college educations.
We have seen historic increases in educational attainment over the last 42 years. In 1980, approximately 69% of Americans above age 25 had completed high school and 17% had college degrees. By 2022, those figures had reached 91% and 37%, respectively. Conversely, the percentage of adult high-school dropouts decreased by more than two-thirds, from 31% to 9%. Since politicians often claim that the best predictor of adult poverty is the lack of a high school degree, one might imagine that poverty also substantially decreased over these 42 years. It did not. In fact, the poverty rate fluctuated between 11% to 15% over that period, with no clear trend.
