Over the last 20 years or so, MBA programs have proliferated in America. They have plenty of critics, though — people who say they often consist of little more than a rehash of undergraduate coursework and are taught by people who are academic theorists rather than individuals who actually know how business works. For many jobs, having an MBA is now an obligatory credential, part of the screening process.

The case against the MBA gets a boost from a piece in Tuesday’s WSJ, “Teaching Entrepreneurs to Do More Than Dream” by Ken Kuang. (It is still subscriber only content, but if the link doesn’t work for you, just google the title.) Kuang is shocked to discover that MBA grads don’t have any idea about creating a realistic business plan. “I have mentored graduate students at prestigious universities who couldn’t tell me how they were going to cover things like payroll taxes, workers’ compensation and other basic costs. One had generously given himself a salary of $125,000 in his plan and was astonished when I sat him down with his own projections and showed that he’d be lucky to make $50,000 annually,” Kuang writes.

He offers the opinion that too many business schools focus on producing execs for big corporations and Wall Street firms, “not equipping them to venture out on their own.” Yes, but maybe lots of the grads aren’t even well prepared for those big corporations.