One of the reasons for the college bubble was that as more and more people got college degrees, employers began to make it a requirement that applicants have such credentials, whether the work actually called for any knowledge or skills that most high-school grads would not possess. Having a college degree became a “requirement” for a great many jobs, and therefore most students, even those with scant interest in academics, went to college.

Now, the landscape is changing. Some major companies have dropped their college-degree requirements, and so have a number of states. Recently, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, added his state to this list, and in today’s Martin Center article, Graham Hillard discusses this move.

Hillard writes, “The director of the Office of State Human Resources must now take action ‘to emphasize how directly-related experience substitutes for formal education in [state] job recruitments.’ Mandatory four-year degrees and the attendant credential inflation? Out. Rational hiring based on applicants’ skills and capabilities? Happily in.”

The absurd mania for college degrees that prevailed until just a few years ago is clearly waning, and that’s one of the few bright spots.