As the fall term kicks off, we’re ready to get a unique perspective on the value of a college education with the editor of the Washington Monthly which just released its 20th anniversary college ranking issue. Paul Glastris tells host Douglas Hayes that he and his team rank schools on what the schools do for the country and hope to change how families, policy makers, and higher education officials imagine the purpose of a college degree. 

Higher education excellence is not catering to the wealthy, but meeting the needs of the average student, says Glastris. Whereas the US News and World report uses a set of metrics based on school exclusivity, wealth, and prestige, the Washington Monthly ranks schools on upward mobility, research, and service. Glastris says that these qualities are what most Americans want out of a college education. 

They discuss the purpose of rankings, the highest rated school (Berea College in Kentucky), the media’s overreporting on elite universities, the erosion of free speech on college campuses, and the status of vocational education. Glastris says that the highest rated schools are in states like Texas, Florida, and California where the schools have a political commitment to keeping tuition low for in-state students of modest means and have highly centralized governance structures. These schools are good at keeping costs down but their centralized structures can be used opportunistically by politicians, like Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida.

Paul Glastris is the editor in chief of the Washington Monthly with extensive media experience as a commentator and author. He worked as a correspondent and editor at the US News and World Report before joining President Clinton’s staff as a special assistant and senior speechwriter. Paul also co-founded the President’s “DC Reads This Summer” program, which placed over 1,000 federal employees as volunteer reading tutors in Washington, DC public schools. 

Featured image of Berea College, the top school on the Washington Monthly’s 2025 ranking. Image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). 

The post A Successful College Should Not Look Like A Country Club appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.