"taxpayers are mostly fueling a futile arms race"

"Parents, teachers, politicians and researchers tirelessly warn today's youths about the unforgiving job market that awaits them. If they want to succeed in tomorrow's economy, they can't just coast through school. They have to soak up precious knowledge like a sponge. But even as adulthood approaches, students rarely heed this advice. Most treat high school and college like a game, not an opportunity to build lifelong skills.
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Is it possible that students are on to something? There is a massive gap between school and work, between learning and earning. While the labor market rewards good grades and fancy degrees, most of the subjects schools require simply aren't relevant on the job. Literacy and numeracy are vital, but few of us use history, poetry, higher mathematics or foreign languages after graduation. The main reason firms reward education is because it certifies (or "signals") brains, work ethic and conformity.
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Education is a weird industry. You study arcane subjects year after year, knowing you'll never use most of what you learned after graduation. Yet parents, teachers, politicians and researchers urge you to finish, promising ample career rewards for your efforts. Despite the many college graduates who end up working as waiters, the experts are, on average, right: Diplomas pay well. What experts misunderstand is why. Instead of scrutinizing what schools really teach, they rush to a just-so story in which schools transform low-skilled students into high-skilled graduates. Students, much closer to the action, see what's going on: As long as they have good grades and finish their degrees, employers care little about what they've learned.
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if students' firsthand experience tells the real story, taxpayers are mostly fueling a futile arms race. Generous government support has caused massive credential inflation. Educational austerity is the simplest path back to an economy in which serious on-the-job learning starts during high school — not after college."

Trechos retirados de "What students know that experts don't: School is all about signaling, not skill-building"