“The world of college education is different now than it was a generation ago, when many of the people driving policy decisions on education went to college, and the theoretical ideas about why college should pay off do not comport well with the reality.” As college tuition rises and the marketing of the importance of a college education grows louder, it’s a good time to join The New Yorker’s John Cassidy for some college calculus: What’s the real value of higher education?