Of course everything isn’t signaling. Students definitely learn useful job skills. School lasts over a decade. It would be amazing if students didn’t learn something useful before they left. My claim is that education is mostly signaling. Given all the evidence, a 20/80 human capital/signaling split seems reasonable. I’m happy to debate the exact figure. Until labor economists renounce human capital purism, though, I cannot take their approach seriously—and neither should anyone else.
