The Case against Education by Bryan Caplan

Author:Bryan Caplan [Caplan, Bryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780691174655
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2017-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

The False Savior of Online Education

We lived through the stock market bubble and the housing bubble. Investments paid off for years, then collapsed. Will education share the same fate? Plenty of parents and pundits suspect so. For a rising generation of technophiles, however, the debate is over. They’re convinced our education bubble is ready to burst, starting with higher education.46 Why now? Because today’s Internet teaches more effectively than old-school schools for a fraction of the cost. Online competition has already crushed traditional record companies, newspapers, and retailers. Brick-and-mortar schools are next in line.

If the technophiles are right, squabbling about education spending is pretty pointless. Taxpayers are wasting billions on obsolete business models, but why fight over a sinking ship? Government cannot stop the power of disruptive innovation. If you want to make a difference, forget about education policy. Found an online education startup, and become the change you wish to see in the world.

When I explain the centrality of signaling, audiences often think I’m endorsing the technophiles’ story. This utterly misunderstands me. Education is not a bubble, but stable waste. As long as traditional education receives hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars every year, the status quo will stand. Online education will slowly carve out a niche, but that is all.

Technophiles would have a compelling case if education’s sole function were teaching job skills. Online education has clear pedagogical advantages over traditional education. Coursera, Khan Academy, Marginal Revolution University, and their rivals hire the best teachers in the world.47 Students can learn at their own pace—pausing whenever they need to reflect, rewinding whenever they need review, fast forwarding as soon as they master the material. Anyone who’s lost can drop a level without looking like a loser. Anyone’s who’s bored can jump a level without looking like a nerd. Online education is an awesome way to build human capital.

Unfortunately, students aren’t hungry for human capital. They’re hungry for signals. Why? Because the labor market mainly pays for credentials acquired, not skills learned. After years of hype, sophisticated technophiles are finally coming to terms with this fact. Kevin Carey of the New America Foundation explains the intellectual evolution: “Three years ago, technology was going to transform higher education. What happened?”

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