The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money

by Bryan Caplan

Thanks to the landmark 1971 Griggs vs. Duke Power case, later codified in the 1991 Civil Rights Act, anyone who hires by IQ risks pricey lawsuits. Why? Because IQ tests have a “disparate impact” on black and Hispanic applicants. To escape liability, employers must prove IQ testing is a “business necessity.”68 Since this legal hurdle is nigh insurmountable, employers turn to higher education to “launder” their workers’ IQ scores. As Jonathan Last succinctly states: In Griggs, the Court held that employers could not rely on IQ-type tests if minorities performed relatively poorly on them. . . . So what employers do is this: They launder their request for test scores through the college system, because colleges are allowed to use such considerations. The universities get rich, students and their parents go into hock, and everyone pretends that Acme Widgets is hiring Madison because they value her B.A. in sociology from Haverford, and not because her admission to Haverford proved that she is bright—a fact which a three-hour written test could have demonstrated just as well. If Griggs were rolled back, it would upend the college system at a stroke.