The political leanings of Americans help determine how they feel about college education and what it can do for graduates. While both liberals and conservatives think college is important, how important it is is debatable.
A recent poll by You Gov indicates that:
While similar numbers of liberals and conservatives indicated that college is “somewhat important”, liberals were 20 percentage points more likely than conservatives to say that college is “very important”. In fact, only a little more than one quarter of self-identified conservatives and a similar proportion of self-identified Republicans agree that college is “very important” to financial success.
Similarly, while a majority of both liberals and conservatives believe that after four years of college a person is usually at least “somewhat more educated”, liberals are more than twice as likely as conservatives to say that a person will be “much more educated” after college (39 percent to 17 percent).
In addition, while 34 percent of conservatives think going to college makes someone “much more liberal,” only 4 percent of liberals thought that people become “much more liberal” as a result of a college education.
