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.
Show moreWhy 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.
Show moreList of Illustrations ix List of Tables xi Preface xiii Introduction 1 1 The Magic of Education 9 2 The Puzzle Is Real: The Ubiquity of Useless Education 31 3 The Puzzle Is Real: The Handsome Rewards of Useless Education 69 4 The Signs of Signaling: In Case You're Still Not Convinced 96 5 Who Cares If It's Signaling? The Selfish Return to Education 124 6 We Care If It's Signaling: The Social Return to Education 165 7 The White Elephant in the Room: We Need Lots Less Education 195 8 1 > 0: We Need More Vocational Education 225 9 Nourishing Mother: Is Education Good for the Soul? 238 10 Five Chats on Education and Enlightenment 262 Conclusion 285 Technical Appendix: Completion Probability and Student Quality 291 Notes 295 References 337 Index 381
Bryan Caplan is professor of economics at George Mason University and a blogger at EconLog. He is the author of Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun than You Think and The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (Princeton). He lives in Oakton, Virginia.
"One of Tyler Cowen's Best Non-Fiction Books of 2018"
"One of Bloomberg Opinion's Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2018
(Stephen L. Carter)"
"Bryan Caplan raises an important question in [his] controversial
new book, The Case Against Education. How much of the benefits of a
degree comes from the skills you acquire in studying for it? And
how much from the piece of paper at the end – what your degree
certificate signals to employers about the skills and attributes
you might have had long before you filled in a unviersity
application form?"---Sonia Sodha, The Guardian
"Would-be students and their parents are rethinking the assumption
that a good life is impossible without an expensive degree--not to
mention the chase for college admission that begins at kindergarten
if not before. [This new book] may help to let out a little more
air."---Naomi Schaefer Riley, Wall Street Journal
"You probably won’t agree with everything he says . . . but his
broadside is worth considering carefully given that the U.S. spends
$1 trillion or so a year on education at all levels, more than the
budget for defense."---Peter Coy, Bloomberg Businessweek
"It is an excellent book, on an important topic. Beyond such cheap
talk, I offer the costly signal of having based an entire chapter
of our new book on his book. That’s how good and important I think
it is. . . . Caplan offers plausible evidence that school functions
to let students show employers that they are smart, conscientious,
and conformist. And surely this is in fact a big part of what is
going on."---Robin Hanson, Overcoming Bias
"A book that America has needed for a long time. If we ever reach a
turning point where most of us reject the idea that government
should mandate and subsidize certain kinds of education, Bryan
Caplan will have a lot to do with it."---George Leef, Forbes
"Economist Bryan Caplan of George Mason University has crunched the
data for years from every angle and argues devastatingly . . . that
college is, for many of those who go there, a boondoggle."---Kyle
Smith, National Review Online
"Excellent argument by Bryan Caplan, but missed something central:
convexity of trial-and-error & heuristic learning."---Nassim
Nicholas Taleb
"It's like the case against parenting's role in shaping children: I
don't want to believe it, but the data force you take it seriously.
Good book."---Charles Murray
"Like most fascinating authors, Caplan, too, has scrumptious
contradictions. . . . Whatever the truth is, this book is
recommended to parents, high school teachers, and college
professors for gaining valuable insights into the dynamics of
‘useless’ education."---L. Ali Khan, NY Journal of Books
"[Caplan] is also frequently infuriating. But when he is right, he
is very right. The Case Against Education, a book 10 years in the
making, is a case of Caplan being right."---Charles Fain Lehman,
Washington Free Beacon
"The Case Against Education lays the groundwork for readers to
think anew about education, what it does and ought to do, what
place it holds and ought to hold in American society. It ought to
be a wake-up call for all Americans, especially those who seek to
champion ‘education’ without explaining why it’s a worthy
cause."---Ian Lindquis, The Weekly Standard
"Caplan delivers a tightly knit, compelling indictment of the
vastly inflated, scandalously over-priced and often socially
deleterious Ponzi scheme that American higher education has
become."---Aram Bakshian Jr., Washington Times
"His words might be hard to digest. But with dismal school
performance and achievement year after year, it’s worth challenging
the assumptions we make about the education systems that now
envelop childhood."---Kaitlyn Buss, Detroit News
"The Case Against Education is a brilliant book that you should
read, though you’ll probably reject its conclusions without really
considering them."---Jake Seliger
"[Caplan’s] evidence, trends and intuition suggest he has an
important point."---Ryan Bourne, The Telegraph
"Bryan Caplan is perhaps the most natural ‘social science book
writer’ I have met, besides myself of course. Not only does he want
people to agree with him, he insists that they agree with him for
the right reasons."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
"The Case Against Education is powerfully argued, provocative but
not polemical, marrying a wealth of evidence with an engaging
writing style. . . . After 300 pages, Caplan's outlandish proposals
seem not just plausible but natural conclusions, whether or not you
share his ideological commitments."---Aveek Bhattacharya, London
School of Economics Review of Books
"Cogently argued."---Megan McArdle, Washington Post
"A persuasive indictment of his own industry."---Gene Epstein, City
Journal
"I’m not sure he’s right, especially about education being almost
entirely for the purpose of signaling, but goodness does he make a
strong case. Agree with him or not, you’ll never look at the
schools and colleges in quite the same way."---Stephen L. Carter,
Bloomberg Opinion
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