>Three independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are genome-wide significant (rs9320913, rs11584700, rs4851266), and all three replicate. Estimated effects sizes are small (coefficient of determination R2 ≈ 0.02%), approximately 1 month of schooling per allele. A linear polygenic score from all measured SNPs accounts for ≈2% of the variance in both educational attainment and cognitive function
Yeah, this should be the case just based on the logistics involved. Higher education typically takes place during the years when a woman is able to have children. And to go a step further: generally people obtain higher education for a purpose: to further a career. So, then, after schooling is over, there will be a career to make, further reducing the number of years available for a woman to have children.
So this should be the case based on practical matters alone.
Sorry but these types of studies strongly smack of eugenics. This reminds of Stephen Jay Gould's book "The mismeasure of a man".
If the SNPs are inherited (and possibly racially so) and a lower educational attainment should be associated with a lack of native intelligence, can we then conclude from this study that certain groups have a lower IQ and therefore are genetically pre-disposed to have less educational attainment? Can we test for these people in the general population and prevent them from breeding?
Are these SNPs associated with criminal propensities or mental issues and therefore correlate with a lack of educational attainment? We could then identify them and drill holes in their heads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy
Science is littered with shoddy peer accepted studies correlating IQ with genetics. This seems to be the 21st century version.
lower educational attainment, not higher
see: GWAS of 126,559 Individuals Identifies Genetic Variants Associated with Educational Attainment (one of the authors is Beauchamp) http://science.sciencemag.org/content/340/6139/1467
>Three independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are genome-wide significant (rs9320913, rs11584700, rs4851266), and all three replicate. Estimated effects sizes are small (coefficient of determination R2 ≈ 0.02%), approximately 1 month of schooling per allele. A linear polygenic score from all measured SNPs accounts for ≈2% of the variance in both educational attainment and cognitive function