by Bryan Caplan (Author)
Why we need to stop wasting public funds on education
Despite
being immensely popular--and immensely lucrative―education is grossly
overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary
function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify
their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity―in other words, to signal
the qualities of a good employee. Learn why students hunt for easy As
and casually forget most of what they learn after the final exam, why
decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs
for the average worker but instead in runaway credential inflation, how
employers reward workers for costly schooling they rarely if ever use,
and why cutting education spending is the best remedy.
Caplan
draws on the latest social science to show how the labor market values
grades over knowledge, and why the more education your rivals have, the
more you need to impress employers. He explains why graduation is our
society's top conformity signal, and why even the most useless degrees
can certify employability. He advocates two major policy responses. The
first is educational austerity. Government needs to sharply cut
education funding to curb this wasteful rat race. The second is more
vocational education, because practical skills are more socially
valuable than teaching students how to outshine their peers.
Romantic notions about education being "good for the soul" must yield to careful research and common sense―The Case against Education points the way.
