The Education Paradox: More Degrees, Less Literacy

This graph exposes higher education's spectacular failure: as college graduation rates nearly quintupled from 8% to 38%, adult proficient literacy collapsed from 60% to 20%. We're producing more graduates who can read less proficiently. The credential has replaced the capability it supposedly represents.

We haven't raised educational standards; we've lowered them while raising prices. The same cognitive tasks that once required eighth grade now require bachelor's degrees. This isn't progress; it's credential inflation – a pyramid scheme where each generation needs more degrees to achieve what the previous generation did with fewer, while actual capability deteriorates.