… sardonically writes a mother, Maureen Downey, whose family is currently sacrificing to put two of its children through college. College students today, she says, just can’t manage the huge costs at private campuses without ”running drugs” in the year and “selling body parts” in the summer. And she decries families having to assume second mortgages and deplete retirement funds to afford college.

But Downey’s article is not a mere screed against college costs. She also, correctly, calls to task campus evaluators who ignore which campuses are in fact successfullly delivering education. Notably:

A study released this summer by PayScale Inc., which compiles compensation data, found that the median starting salary for Ivy League graduates is 32 percent higher than that of liberal-arts college graduates. PayScale says the median starting salary for a University of Georgia graduate is $44,100, compared to $66,400 for a Harvard grad. However, the study doesn’t address whether that pay differential is the result of a better education, or simply because the Ivies can attract higher-achieving students in the first place.

And the clincher?

To me, the question is whether the additional prestige of a high-priced college degree justifies the additional debt that often comes with it, especially in this dicey economy. We’ve all heard stories about the bright college grad who moves back home with an anthropology degree, $40,000 in loans and a waitress job.