WASHINGTON, D.C. Sept. 7 (DPI) – A writer who has documented “education inequality” looked into the long-held notion that Americans see less value in most college degrees these days, and readers – to the surprise of pretty much no one – agreed.

Paul Tough, a Baltimore-based writer who is a contributor to The NYT Magazine, has focused on the advantages that top universities confer on their graduates, at least compared with the hundreds of less-competitive universities.

Tough spends a good bit of his essay examining another familiar matter – the cost of higher education generally. He calls the entire college experience something of a gamble these days, and a riskier one if you are not focused on STEM and engineering.

But in most cases, at least at the top universities,

“college has become simply a place for students to collect a gold-plated credential. “It’s a racketeering situation,” (Frederick Hess of The American Enterprise Institute) said when we spoke last month. “In many elite occupations, the price of admission is now an elite degree. That’s true whether it’s a posh D.C. think tank or a big consulting firm or a fancy journalistic outlet.” For many students, Hess said, the point of an expensive college education is not to gain practical job skills. “It’s just a really expensive toll that lets you jump the queue and get the good jobs.”

Readers sounded off with more than 3,500 comments. And the most popular comments reinforced the view that college degrees today are often overrated, and don’t guarantee a better life or career. The top comments:

When I see the wealth amassed by my friend who owns a roofing company, and another who is a pilot working just 3 days a week. I get it. I have a PhD and teach at a university and make far less. The football coach, though? Millions a year. Education is simply not valued in this country.

I work as a school counselor at our public high school and I have seen this trend. On the one hand I understand it – who wants to be saddled with a huge mountain of debt at 22 when, instead, a person could get trained in/be working in the trades and earning a very good income at 22 with no debt? On the other hand, I believe education is an essential pillar of democracy and the rejection of higher education, no matter how valid the reason, makes me concerned about the future of our nation. The way our country is headed, we need our citizens to be educated to protect and fight against the misinformation that creates fertile ground for authoritarianism. We must require civics and news analysis/misinformation/how to find trusted news sources classes in high school AND we must make public higher education affordable for all Americans.

An excellent article with the same glaring omission as every other similar article: administrative costs. Over a thirty year career at a state university I have watched in dismay as an army of EDDs has siphoned millions of tax dollars and students’ rising tuition costs away from teaching and research into IDEA, Red Baloon, Health and Wellness, advising centers (advising was once done free of charge by faculty) development, offices of institutional (in)effectiveness, etc. etc. You could eliminate half the administration and not miss a beat. Worse, the salary increases for this useless bureaucratic excrescence consistently outstrip those for faculty. And, of course, there are no adjunct administrators whereas adjunct faculty now make up nearly 2/3 of total faculty at my institution. This is a scandal to which both political parties seem totally oblivious.

The answer is easy. Colleges and universities priced themselves out of the market. Pigs get fat; hogs get slaughtered.

American college degrees are vastly overpriced for the value they deliver to a graduate. Most American institutions of higher learning provide the equivalent of the last 2 years of a British, Canadian, German or French high school. And in many of those countries, young people sort themselves out by age 15 into college-bound or non-college professional tracks. Including apprenticeships. Our graduates do not impress on the job, with their dearth of real knowledge that they cannot fake.