The time is right — your foundation [Gates'], the world's largest, recently announced a big push to improve postsecondary education. It's a terrific move. High-quality college credentials are the key to opportunity in the modern economy. If our higher-education system doesn't get much better at helping more students earn them, your good work in improving elementary and secondary education will be for naught.Maybe it's just me, but don't the bolded sentences seem to say that it is the degree--the piece of paper--that is the goal of college as opposed to, say, the education one might receive at the college?
And this is from Kevin Carey, a self-described education policy reformer. Here, folks, is a perfect example of the problem we face when we talk about reforming education: a "wonk" claiming the important thing to get at college is the degree.