Debate on worth of college continues

You may or may not be aware that a debate has been going on for some time now in traditional news media and the blogs about the value of a college education.  The latest round is a post by Catherine Rampell over at the New York Times blog Economix (see here).  She produces the chart below from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (click to enlarge).

She says:

Take a look at the right side of the chart, which shows earnings by education. The median weekly earnings for college graduates are $1,043. Not bad, especially when you consider that the median weekly earnings for a high school graduate are $643
.
What’s more impressive, though, is that even the economic underachievers among college graduates earn more than the typical high school grad: A college graduate at the 25th percentile makes $730 per week, which is still 13.5 percent more than the median high school grad.