In recent years, a growing number of Americans have come to realize that higher education may not be the golden ticket it was once thought to be for young people.

A recent poll conducted by NBC News reveals that a significant 63% of voters now believe that pursuing a four-year college degree isn’t worth the investment. This sentiment stems from the observation that many graduates leave college burdened with substantial debt while lacking the specific job skills needed to succeed.

This marks a sharp increase from the situation in 2013, when a majority of people held the opposite opinion. Back then, 53% of respondents believed that earning a degree was worthwhile because it offered the chance for better job prospects and higher lifetime earnings.

Historically, for generations of Americans, obtaining a college degree was considered crucial for securing high-paying jobs and achieving a better quality of life. The notion of being “upwardly mobile” was almost synonymous with being “college-educated.”

However, over the past few decades, this perspective has shifted dramatically. Today, far too many college degrees fail to guarantee anything beyond significant financial burdens.

Tuition costs have skyrocketed, doubling over the last 20 years (a redoubling from two decades earlier), as universities jacked up prices to match increased “help” such as federal aid and ever-larger government-facilitated student loans.

But in return for 70 grand or more a year, students today too often don’t get prepared for a lucrative or even stable career.

Countless colleges have transformed into woke indoctrination factories that churn out grads with liberal arts degrees and zero specialized skills.

A report last year found that two-thirds of colleges require DEI-related courses to graduate, offering classes like “Understanding Diversity in a Pluralistic Society” and “Abolition of Whiteness.”

Why take on huge debt to be pummeled nonstop with identity politics?

Meanwhile, grade inflation and faculties increasingly dominated by leftist ideologues reduce the return even on “real” classes.

Plus, a rapidly changing economy is making white-collar jobs an increasingly unsafe bet.

Prospective students once could safely bet that a hard science or math degree was a sure winner, but the rise of AI is already wiping out options for recent grads in countless sectors, including tech.

Americans have noticed: College enrollment has plummeted these last few years, while numbers of Gen Zers are eyeing high-paying, high-demand careers as welders, plumbers and electricians.

Trade school was once stigmatized as a less-appealing option than the hallowed halls of the Ivy League, but a less expensive, more focused education that teaches a highly valuable skill now often seems the far wiser choice.

Yes, college can still absolutely make sense for many young people, especially at the schools that have kept tuition affordable and academic standards rigorous — but the idea that everyone should go never made much sense, and is plainly false today.

Higher Ed, Inc. is on notice: Squeezing students with sky-high tuitions while offering subpar, ideology-driven curriculum is a death sentence.

America’s students have caught on to the scam.