I believe the article was about the rising costs to society that come from expecting everyone to get their post-secondary education through formal schooling to get a job. The truth is, a university really isn't a good fit for a lot of people. It's painful both in terms of the many years it can take and the massive financial burden.
One of my closest childhood friends has been buried in student debt for years and is still taking part time classes while working a full-time job (which often forces poor performance in the classes). But debt deferral doesn't last long if you stop taking classes. Talk about poor alignment of incentives! Both the initial decision to seek a degree and the expectation of one from so many downright elitist gatekeepers ended up creating a vicious cycle of increasing debt for a good person who has a great work ethic but poor study habits.
Statistics make it clear that this is far from uncommon. Perhaps some social circles are insulated from the reality but facts are facts.
At most public universities, only 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor’s degree in four years. http://completecollege.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/4-Year...
The system is broken and getting worse.
In school, people generally have to do the same thing everyone else does, they have precise deadlines and get nothing for forging their own paths. In life, having no unique experiences or skills is a path to ruin, one can never be certain how long a window of opportunity will be open and finding one's own path can lead to great satisfaction and well-being.
From an educational perspective, school is even worse. Many with literature degrees can't write, business majors rarely build successful businesses, foreign language majors often don't end up fluent in the language they study for years on end, and even top sales reps or engineers often lack a related degree. Spending all that time is only really worth it if a) it's required for a license, b) you need access to equipment you couldn't otherwise get, e.g. for the sciences, c) you just aren't capable of learning well on your own, or d) you go to an elite institution where you can learn from the best in the world.
90% of the value is just the credential to deal with narrow-minded people and institutions who use it as a filter.