Apparently attitudes towards college education - and its benefits - is determined to a large degree by whether one identifies as liberal or conservative:
The importance of ideology to the value that the typical American attaches to higher education is tremendous. When I construct a statistical model that accounts for a person's income, gender, education, race, where they live, and whether or not they are the parent of a minor child -- conservatism is the single most powerful predictor of whether a person thinks a college education is important to financial success, the effect a person thinks college has on political ideology, and their opinion of college professors. In fact, political ideology is more strongly associated with a person's views on college professors than it is their views on President Obama! When compared to liberals, the amount that conservatives discount the value of college is about the same amount that persons with high school diplomas discount college when compared with college graduates.
The author believes the difference in opinion is driven by signals people get from elites they identify with - most recently Senator Santorum's suggestion that Obama was being a snob for wanting people to go to college.
