Why Not Ban The College Degree Box?

Forbes ^ | July 7, 2016 | George Leef

[reaganaut1]

Of late, the Obama administration has been applying pressure to ban the criminal record box – that is, to keep employers from asking if an applicant has ever been convicted. That is supposed to open up more job opportunities for people who have criminal records.

It could, but then it could also have harmful consequences if people with past criminal records and current criminal intent are put in jobs where they can commit more crimes. (Another objection is that the federal government has no constitutional authority to dictate hiring policies, but let’s put that aside.)

There is another hiring policy involving a box that is equally damaging to people who are trying to find employment, namely the way many employers now decline to consider applicants unless they have a college degree. Even if they have the knowledge needed to do the work or are just as trainable as a college graduate, the degree box keeps many who don’t have one from a chance at jobs other than the most menial.

Things weren’t always this way in the U.S. Earlier in our history, employers rarely concerned themselves with educational credentials. Only a very few jobs were foreclosed to people who didn’t have the right degrees. That changed rapidly starting about 40 years ago.

A key reason for the change was a Supreme Court decision, Griggs v. Duke Power Co.

[conservative cat]

I just gave up and got a liberal arts type of degree after 20 years in the workplace. It opened up jobs I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to apply for- even with a my experience. People in my field side eye my degree when they hear what I have, but I have been doing the work for so long, it doesn’t matter.

[generally]

I was going to post pretty much what 17th Miss Regt said.

That’s the major problem. The activists found out that aptitude testing eliminated applicants from their favored groups, so out it went. Then when college degrees became the substitute, they started going after the SATs and any other college admission criteria that had the same filtering effect they didn’t like.

I think one side effect of this is that more and more employers are hiring contractors instead of employees. That makes it easier to weed people out and get rid of the bad ones.

If it were up to me, I’d let employers give whatever tests they want to. They are the ones taking the risk on an employee. If they hire stupidly or discriminate against a truly qualified candidate, their more savvy competitors would snap him/her up.

The government needs to get their noses out of our business, both literally and figuratively.

[lepton]

Sadly, moving to another job, even laterally is very difficult. I’m expected to have a Masters at my pay scale. Never mind that I can do the job and excel at it.

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I know a fair number of people like that. Very literate, generally regarded as one of the smartest and most educated in their group...but can’t move, even to a group not stacked full of people with MSs.

[Laser_Ray]

I’m as pro-business as anyone else here and I say it’s long time for this. I’ve been the victim of blatantly obvious trickery by too many businesses - insane qualifications for ‘monkey work’ jobs, college degrees REQUIRED for ‘entry level’, 2-6 years experience for positions not stated to be entry level but posted everywhere...

I really do apologize to any fellow conservatives who are offended by this, I appreciate the work you did for the grades you got, but there is just too much tomfoolery going on and the only leverage we have is to go to our duly elected officials and pass laws.