Signaling and education

A good friend referenced the literature in education and signalling to agree with the New Yorker perspective on the topic. This is a nice set of perspectives, but I wonder if my view is shaped by my experience teaching in an open access community college - it would be interesting to look at the samples from which the above studied dipped - fully heterogenous (including institutions such as my humble employer) or perhaps more stratifed? I wonder, what signal is communicated from Rio Salado Community College, Ohio State or Julliard compared to MIT, Cal Berkeley or Stanford. One also thinks about the full "cost" of the signal - a portion of which is borne by the taxpayer. The studies seems to estimate a rate of return in excess of 10 per cent - if this is the case, what is the argument for state assistance?