Charles Murray is right. What is needed are credentialing exams so that employers and others could know that certain subjects had been mastered.
Are employers really interested in degrees, or do they want motivated, smart, and educated employees and some way that measures that? I'd say it is the latter.
Most of the work done in banking, accounting, bureaucracy, and business, does not need a specific degree to do the work. Since the existence of European presence on this continent this work was done by people who did not attend college. Most in fact were homeschooled or attended one room schools in a spotty manner...even up to my father's day ( born 1913).
Even in professions such as medicine, dentistry, architecture, ( and especially law), qualifying exams could replace many of the basic and fact-based courses. Mentoring, of course, would still be required but the cost to the student could be greatly reduced by the use of qualifying exams for many courses.
Qualifying exams could start in first grade. For example, once a child demonstrates mastery of addition math facts, he would immediately move on to subtraction math facts.
All courses provided by state elementary, high school, and universities should be available on-line. The taxpayer paid for it so access should be free to all. Private qualifying exams could prove that the student mastered the material.
Finally....This could be a Mark Zuckerman opportunity. Those who privately produce Internet material and provide the certifiable exams could offer the material to the students for **free**. They could become as rich as Zuckerman, if they accepted advertising.
I like this idea a lot. For one thing it actually will put kids where they can succeed. The military does this exact thing. You are given the ASVAB test where they show where your “specialties” are. You are give a couple of areas that you exceed in and you can decide which one you would like to pursue. Some will say, “but what if they don’t like it or if they are not as good as the test say”. Sure this happens but it is rare. If that happens, then take another test and see if there is something else that would work. This really would work! It would save a lot of heartaches for people that is for sure.
“What is needed are credentialing exams so that employers and others could know that certain subjects had been mastered.
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Employers used to have a better system: They checked on colleges and degree programs and would only accept those that had demonstrated quality. A person needed to have the appropriate degree from an accepted college for the degree to count.
Such testing used to be the norm. It was effectively outlawed by the Supreme Court in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. in 1971. Since then, any test which has "disparate impact" (different pass rates for blacks and whites) is declared racially discriminatory. Coincident with this, companies started to push for college degrees as a way to select for more-intelligent applicants.
We would need to repeal Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in order to restore sanity.
I certainly agree with you, but I was speaking to the reality of the current situation. You are unlikely to get any of my listed jobs without a degree, though it is possible to have careers as an undegreed engineer, accountant, or banker, your chances are close to zero in getting your foot in the door unless you are entering a family business. Credential exams would be great, but it won’t happen as it would take the power away from big education. Can you think of any reason why I should have to go to law school to take the bar exam... or have 100+ credits in accounting to take the CPA exam? If I think I know the material and am willing to pay for the test, why should I have to spend money on formal education. You realize Bill Gates is unqualified to teach a high school businuss class?