If the primary purpose of school was education, the Internet should obsolete it. But school is mainly about credentialing. Schools survive anti-educational behavior (i.e. groupthink) due to symbiosis between institutions that issue and accept credentials. Employers looking past traditional credentials can arbitrage the gap. Y Combinator made $Bs doing this for young founders. The more meritocratic an industry, the faster it moves away from false credentialing. I.e., the MBA and tech startups. A generation of auto-didacts, educated by the Internet & leveraged by technology, will eventually starve the industrial-education system. Until then, only the most desperate and talented students will make the leap.
Even today, what to study and how to study it are more important than where to study it and for how long. The best teachers are on the Internet. The best books are on the Internet. The best peers are on the Internet. The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce. Educational credentials are badges that admit one to the elite class. Expect elites to struggle mightily to justify the current system.
Eventually, the tide of the Internet and rational, self-interested employers will create and accept efficient credentialing and wash away our obsolete industrial-education system.