Fred spotlights Jack Hough’s argument against the present system of higher education, in which colleges “simply certify knowledge among their students, at a high cost, instead of imparting it.” Hough insists, rightly, that it’s high time for campuses to start providing to the public hard evidence of what students have learned.

Moreover, in his advocacy that standardized knowledge transcripts replace “say-so” degrees, Hough is nobody’s fool. He also specifies that the testing of student knowledge and skills must be done independently of colleges. As he sensibly puts it: “Colleges should no more vouch for their own academic competence than butchers should decide for themselves whether their meat is USDA prime.”