John Marcus

And college going in the United States is down.

In economic rival countries globally, college going is way up.

So we're losing the competitive edge that we've always had by having a well-educated, innovative, and entrepreneurial population.

That's the big picture.

The small picture is more immediately, as you might assume, a college that closes is a problem for its community because you lose jobs, housing values go down when you lose a major employer.

But here's the one that surprised me that I never really thought about.

A lot of these colleges are in remote, isolated places, often rural.

And they draw young people to these communities who, after they graduate, they stay.

And they create businesses or they work in jobs.

And a lot of the colleges that have closed are in places where the population is aging.

And all of these colleges that have closed is another kind of ending of the pipeline that was bringing in young people to a place where they were needed to diversify the economy.

Yes, I would say more small towns than cities, but even in some cities where colleges close, again, it's a lot of payroll.

There's a lot of employees.

There's the add-on spending of the students who buy pizza or rent apartments.

But to your point, the immediate reaction I've noticed on social media and elsewhere is, good, let them close.

There's a real antipathy toward colleges among some people in the public who feel that they are elitist, that they are woke, that they're overly liberal, that they're indoctrinating young people.

Whether that's true or not, that's the public perception.

And I don't think colleges have done a very good job at sort of counteracting that narrative.

But they're also really important.

We need them.