How the last recession affected higher education. Will history repeat?

To help us think through what will happen to higher education if the coronavirus pandemic results in a recession, Jill Barshay revisits how higher education fared during the Great Recession.

College enrollment tends to run counter-cyclical to the economy: when the economy contracts, more students enroll in college as the unemployed seek to gain additional skills to get a leg up. Meanwhile, state funding for higher education tends to decline as tax revenues shrink.

The result: More students with less resources.

Read more at The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.