Does a police officer really need a four-year degree? Or a plumber or a journalist or a musician? The 'college is a right' experiment in America is now two decades old and it has led to ballooning costs, a result of unlimited money being thrown at a finite number of colleges. Has it led to a better life?
To be sure, college educated people have higher lifetime earnings, though no evidence shows it is a result of college - if a police officer retires after 25 years on the job, did the degree make them successful?
We're in danger of an education bubble, argues Daniel Indiviglio in The Atlantic, because it has become a barrier to entry for hiring departments who want smart employees but don't want to sort through a lot of resumes. That means the next barrier could be a Master's degree or even a Ph.D., as tenure-track jobs in academia are now.
But are corporations solely to blame? Nope, corporations are not allowed to actually give aptitude tests for jobs or even get honest assessments from previous employers of applicants, so in a sense we have stuck businesses with only one avenue to try and determine suitability - and American young people with unnecessary debt.
The Importance of College: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy -
Daniel Indiviglio in The Atlantic
