For these reasons, he concluded the college experience was not worth his time or money. But until recently, public confidence in higher education remained high, not least because college graduates earn 70 percent more than those without a degree. Seven out of ten Americans now believe higher education is headed in the wrong direction. How Politics Broke Higher Education and What We Can Do to Fix It. Yet perhaps it is possible, he argues, to reinvigorate the college experience by cultivating institutional habits that “combat ideological rigidity.”