There are easier and cheaper ways to sort people. High schools could do more to teach the basic responsibility and functioning skills that they used to. In an age of helicopter parenting, though, many employers would wonder whether it was really parents who were responsible for high-functioning high-school students.

But surely a one- or two-year apprenticeship in any number of fields after high school could show the same evidence of critical thinking and responsibility. Unfortunately, the federal government does not subsidize those paths the same way we subsidize college education through financial aid. Such apprenticeship programs generally require the employer to take on the risk. When a potential employee drops out of such a program, the cost is borne by the employer. When someone drops out of college, the cost is borne only by the student and the taxpayer.

In an era when the obsession over getting into an elite college seems stronger than ever, it’s good to know that some companies don’t seem to care much about the higher-education hierarchy. But why should they care about it at all?