In an essay in the current Chronicle Review, Alan Contreras argues that government should step in to deal with what he perceives to be the problem that educational credentials are all called “degrees,” but certainly don’t all represent the same degree of learning. He says, “let us label them accurately so that consumers, educators, and employers will know exactly what they are.”

I can’t agree that this calls for governent action, or is even much of a problem.

If skill and knowledge really matters to an employer, it can and assuredly will make sure that it looks past the credential to assess the individual’s actual capabilities. If skill and knowledge acquired in formal education don’t really matter – and there are plenty of mundane jobs where the college-degree requirement is simply a screening device – then it might actually be a good thing that competent people can readily and inexpensively acquire the paper credentials to get a shot at job opportunities they’d otherwise be unable to pursue.

Furthermore, I don’t think there is any way of saying “what exactly they are.” There can be a world of difference in the skills and knowledge of two graduates of the same school. One student bears down hard to master difficult academic fields and another coasts through on a raft of easy courses, learning little or nothing. The only way of telling those degree apart is to carefully evaluate the people behind them. I submit that for the most part, decision-makers are pretty good at doing so.