The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money

by Bryan Caplan, Bryan Caplan (Afterword)

Overview

Why we need to stop wasting public funds on education

Despite being immensely popular—and immensely lucrative—education is grossly overrated. Now with a new afterword by Bryan Caplan, this explosive book argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skills but to signal the qualities of a good employee. Learn why students hunt for easy As only to forget most of what they learn after the final exam, why decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for average workers, how employers reward workers for costly schooling they rarely ever use, and why cutting education spending is the best remedy. Romantic notions about education being "good for the soul" must yield to careful research and common sense—The Case against Education points the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691196459
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/20/2019
Edition description:	Updated
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Bryan Caplan is professor of economics at George Mason University. His books include Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think. Twitter @bryan_caplan

Table of Contents

List 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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Cogently argued."—Megan McArdle, Washington Post

"A wake-up call for all Americans."—Ian Lindquist, Weekly Standard

"The Case against Education . . . is a case of Caplan being right."—Charles Fain Lehman, Washington Free Beacon

"[Caplan] argues devastatingly . . . that college is, for many of those who go there, a boondoggle."—Kyle Smith, National Review

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher