Getting a college education is frequently touted as the passport to a prosperous and successful life. Americans are apt to believe that college coursework does a great job of building up “human capital,” without which young people will be limited to menial “burger flipping” kinds of work.

It is becoming increasingly plain, however, that many college students don’t gain much at all when it comes to skills and knowledge that count in the job market. College grads who read and write poorly, can’t do elementary math problems, and wind up in low-paying jobs they could have done while in high school are a sad fact of life.

But even if students are not learning a lot that helps them in their careers, surely they are at least learning the kinds of things that will make them good citizens. In decades gone by, most people did not go to college in order to become employable, but rather to expand their horizons. The traditional college curriculum was far more geared toward creating good citizens than good employees.