The flava:In a book that was long in the works, George Mason University economics professor Bryan Caplan explains, as his subtitle reads, “why the education system is a waste of time and money.” He is emphatically not against people learning skills and knowledge, but argues that our current system of education does a poor job of that, and at inordinate cost. He would like to see government subsidies for education stopped.
Caplan puts his case starkly: “Most critics of our education system… miss what I see as its supreme defect: there’s way too much education. Typical students burn thousands of hours studying material that neither raises their productivity nor enriches their lives. And of course, students can’t waste time without experts to show them how.”
The article:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeleef/2018/01/29/a-professor-who-argues-against-educational-subsidies/
A review published in Forbes about a book written by a professor at George Mason against funding public education?
ReplyDeleteGeorge Mason is the university that the Koch brothers bought--I mean--fund.
I'm ready for an unbiased examination of public education, but from George Mason?
I am always deeply suspicious of anyone who had a good education, or had the opportunity to get one, telling the rest of us that we needn't bother. John Dewey was one; Scott Walker is another.
ReplyDeleteHe makes some interesting points, but he doesn't address what I'm convinced is the underlying problem: not enough "good" jobs to go around. That's why we have credential inflation without real wage growth. That's why welfare reform that got people into the workforce didn't lift them out of poverty, but neither did an experiment that supported them through school.. Because neither path will get you a "good" job if aren't in the top 20% of the labor pool, and surprisingly, not everyone can be in the top 20%.
ReplyDeleteCaplan calls for decreasing government support of education (quelle surprise!) but that doesn't tell us what place there is in our society for the C+ student at Directional State University.