7. Colleges and universities are ground zero (and a symbol) of a (newish) culture that loudly, strongly, and explicitly rejects and condemns much of the rest of America; and especially the type of American that stereotypically would read the WSJ. Conservatives, libertarians, and increasingly classical liberals are not going to have very warm feelings towards things that they perceive are openly hostile to their values.
Do you read the WSJ? I can’t really take your point seriously if you’re using it as an example of what the “left intelligentsia” condemns. Yes, it’s not the NYT, but the WSJ is mostly consumed by people in the group you’re talking about. In fact, they are the WSJ’s primary readership.
I believe that this is a conservative charge. For what it is worth, I work at a college and I don't find that to be so. Of course, it may be the college I work at and I am sure that a person can find college faculty with almost cartoonish views on society.
But, while most of my colleagues are mildly liberal (although there certainly are conservatives), they seem to me to be quite mainstream. I can't recall ever, since I came here in 1990, hearing even one instance of rejecting and condeming much of the rest of America.
At least for public universities, the rise in costs can be largely attributed to the collapse of state support:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-m...
College admin 101: do about the same with more but with new bright lipstick to put on a pig.
2. It's not clear that most colleges are actually teaching much most of the time: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo103...
3. Related to #2, it seems that most colleges have evolved non-educational tracks for those who want them: https://jakeseliger.com/2014/04/27/paying-for-the-party-eliz...
4. See Bryan Caplan's book The Case Against Education, which argues that most of education system is about signaling, not human capital education. If that's true, we ought to work harder to find other ways to signal.
5. It's not clear where the money for college is going. It's not going to instructors or instruction. So where is it disappearing into? Many blame administrators, sports, Title IX, bureaucracy, Baumol's Cost Disease, etc., but I'm not sure what the real answer is.
6. The logical arguments are mostly in books, not online.