HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, CONFIDENCE EDITION: Polls: Confidence in colleges and universities continues plummet to ‘new lows.’

The results not only demonstrate a significant decline in national confidence since the 2023 Gallup poll, but that this decline was especially severe among young people ages 18 to 34, Democrats, and women, with those demographics showing the largest drops, FIRE researcher Nathan Honeycutt wrote in a news release.

What’s more, the drop in confidence from FIRE’s February to May polls shows the unrest and pro-Palestinian protests that have engulfed campuses in recent months has hurt higher education’s reputation further.

Honeycutt told The College Fix recent headlines over academic dishonesty, such as the plagiarism accusations lodged at several top-level campus leaders over the last seven months, could also explain the decline.

Other possible factors cited by FIRE include bias against center-right beliefs, rising tuition costs, and administrative bloat. . . . “The curtain is being pulled back.”

None of that’s a surprise to InstaPundit readers, but apparently their core customer base is catching on.