Is college worth it? In the midst of an ongoing recovery that has not sparked large-scale job growth, some observers and analysts of higher education have suggested that it may not pay an individual to pursue a college education. There is also ongoing debate about whether the economy needs as many college graduates as currently produced. The critics ask: how much would change if nine out of ten colleges were to be closed tomorrow? Talented and productive workers would get hired, get the training they need, and be rewarded. Less productive workers would end up in the jobs they deserve as well. There would be very little change in the makeup or the functioning of the labor market. While such a drastic transformation is not on the table, changes at the margin are quite possible. President Obama's graduation goals notwithstanding, as states struggle to pay for higher education, one possible stance for policymakers to take is that college isn't worth it--that too many college graduates go on to take jobs that don't require college and that the labor market could provide on-the-job-training and professional development to those who do. Such a view could quickly lead to drastically limited access to higher education. In this article, the author discusses three reasons why doing so would be a tragic mistake: (1) Increased education has a "causal" impact on earnings; (2) Within most occupations, more highly educated workers earn more; and (3) Occupations are not static over a lifetime, and more education leads to more occupational mobility. (Contains 2 figures and 8 resources.)