Increasingly, the answer to that question seems to be “not very well.” Many students emerge from their college years primed to gripe about all the world’s ills, but unable to do useful work. Now that English 101 has been decolonized and the old standards for language have been tossed aside as white hegemony, employers find that college grads aren’t much good at simple tasks involving reading and writing.

In today’s Martin Center article, Ashlynn Warta looks at a new survey finding that college isn’t the advantage it used to be.

She writes, “A recent survey by eLearning firm Go1 found that employees of varying ages feel that their college degree has not been the most helpful contributor to their workplace preparation. Forty-six percent of respondents said that higher education failed to prepare them for their current jobs; 61 percent of those polled reported that their work experience had offered better preparation. Despite the differing ages and nationalities of the 3,000-plus employees polled, the findings remained fairly consistent across all groups.”

Many colleges, coasting on reputations established generations back, have allowed their standards to fall badly and for political zealots to take over teaching and hiring. The consequences of those decisions are going to be felt for years to come.