Many employers (including the federal government) require that job applicants have college degrees if they want to be considered — even if the work could be done by someone without such credentials. That makes the demand for college education (or degrees, anyway) higher than they otherwise would be and also tends to crowd people who don’t have college credentials into the mostly lower-paying part of the labor market where credentials are not demanded.
What should be done?
In today’s Martin Center article, Rick Hess of American Enterprise Institute argues that, especially in the wake of Biden’s unilateral decision to forgive a vast amount of student-loan debt, it is time for the feds to downgrade the need for college degrees.
Hess writes, “Why are borrowers going into so much debt in the first place? Some of it is the product of dubious choices (buying a fine arts or women’s studies degree from a pricey private school should be viewed as a luxury purchase, not an investment). On the other hand, there are also lots of examples of students who have been encouraged—by counselors, popular culture, and parents—to see attending college as an obligation.”
The mania for college credentials, Hess argues, has its roots in the Supreme Court’s 1971 Griggs decision, which make it legally risky for employers to screen applicants by tests unless the tests could be proven to be perfectly aligned with the job requirements and have no “disparate impact.” So, employers began turning to a means of screening that was allowed, namely college completion.
Ah, but college completion also has “disparate impact,” and officials could and should lower the demand for them by executive orders. Hess continues, “If President Biden is truly concerned about the burdens of unnecessary borrowing, he can order the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to rewrite its rules regarding degree requirements for the federal government’s two million employees. Biden should instruct the OPM to offer new guidance stipulating that a degree may be required only when it is ‘job-related’ and provides a ‘reasonable measure of job performance.’ That same standard should extend to the classification and qualification standards governing federal contractors.”
Wouldn’t it be fun to see what would happen if a reporter were to ask Biden if he’s considering that?