Typical is this piece in the Las Vegas Sun, in which the writer gives Nevada’s higher-ed chancellor the chance to state the establishment’s party line on how “we should be producing more graduates ready for high-paying jobs.”

The truth of the matter is that when it comes to college credentials, supply does not create its own demand. Just because Nevada and other states “produce” more college graduates, employers are not magically catalyzed to create more “high-paying jobs” for them. Furthermore, very few entry-level jobs call for advanced academic study — work that a bright person who had graduated from high school (or maybe even not) couldn’t possibly learn to do without college courses in something or other.

How long will higher-ed officials be able to get away with the silly notion that taxpayers should give them more money because the economy depends on constant expansion of the college credentialing system?