IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERSTATE DEFLATIONARY FORCES:

That's prompted the people who pay the bills for this American rite of passage to reconsider whether a college education, especially in its current form, is worth the price. A recent poll taken by the financial services firm Edward Jones found that 36% of American adults are reconsidering their investments in higher education. Some 80% of those surveyed who are currently saving for college worry that students' education may suffer because of the lack of resources or social contact only in-person learning can provide.

Nearly a third of those surveyed said they were more likely to attend an online-only college rather than a traditional four-year college or university while one in five were contemplating getting a job or an internship and skipping college altogether.

In an interview, the firm's investment strategist, Nela Richardson, told me that these trends had been brewing for some time, as rising costs of education have eclipsed overall inflation and student debt topped $1.5 trillion.

"The cost of tuition has already been a thread in this narrative of, 'Is it worth it?'" she said. "Already there was a student debt overhang that was affecting people's perception of the value of education."

Then came the pandemic, which has "stripped away all the excess and we're left with the bare necessity," Richardson told me. "So, what is the bare necessity of education? What are you really paying for? If it can be delivered on an online model for the same price, what am I paying for?"

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