> The biggest problem in society as far as jobs are concerned is credential-ism itself. A standard public education should be good enough for a person to obtain a good middle class job, a K-12 education should be good enough for 50-60% of all jobs in the market
Why? What if the markets’ supply and demand curves indicate need for people with more than high school education, and an oversupply of people with just high school education?
Note that I think US public school education standards are basically non existent, and there should be a massive retooling to ensure higher standards (including standardized testing) and more focus on actual skills in high school so that at 18 the kid comes out with something usable.
But I do not see how or why our society can guarantee someone a certain class of living with an arbitrary amount of education.
But there are far more jobs demanding a college degree where it's not required to be successful at that job, than jobs requiring college degree skills and knowledge but accepting under qualified high school graduates.
>>What if the markets’ supply and demand curves indicate need for people with more than high school education
Then that indicates the high school education is not stringent enough for the market, and should be adjusted accordingly
> and an oversupply of people with just high school education?
The market is showing currently an extreme lack of qualified people. if the market is saying there is an " oversupply of people with just high school education" but there are millions of jobs open, that means the market is telling us that a High School Diploma is meaningless to the market, which as you point out that is what many employers are saying. They are hire people with a High School Diploma and it is a crap shoot where they have basic levels of education or not because in many schools its a participation award not a skills award
This has driven employers to respond with demanding higher levels of "education" in an effort so screen people..
> The market is showing currently an extreme lack of qualified people.
And/or a lack of commensurate wages to incentivize qualified people.
We agree on the situation as it currently is of high school being worthless since you pass just for showing up at least half the days of the school year.
But supposed there is a future where K-12 education is rigorous and we improve to the point that calculus and basic physics/chem/bio are as normal as reading and writing, then I can envision a situation where K-12 might not be enough.
Why? What if the markets’ supply and demand curves indicate need for people with more than high school education, and an oversupply of people with just high school education?
Note that I think US public school education standards are basically non existent, and there should be a massive retooling to ensure higher standards (including standardized testing) and more focus on actual skills in high school so that at 18 the kid comes out with something usable.
But I do not see how or why our society can guarantee someone a certain class of living with an arbitrary amount of education.