Paul Glastris

So this is the 20th anniversary.

Thanks for having me on, by the way.

20th anniversary of the Washington Monthly College Guide and Rankings.

This year, we redid our methodology to put an even finer point on what we think college rankings, which we think are important, but...

The dozen of them that are out there, especially U.S.

News, totally miss what's important about college rankings.

Our college rankings are about the value for average students, students from modest means, students who are poor, who are working class.

And they're also for the taxpayers.

The average taxpayer spends about $1,700 a year on higher education because the government spends half a trillion dollars on higher education.

Students and taxpayers want certain things from higher education.

We measure those things, and what are those things?

It's number one, upward mobility for median income and below students, the people who need entree into the middle class.

Number two, the research that drives human flourishing, economic growth, and then three,

Encouraging students to be active citizens, to vote, to serve their country in the military and AmeriCorps.

So those are the things we measure.

And that's very different from U.S.

News and the other dozen imitators, because what they're about is...

capturing the eyeballs of the upper middle, students from the upper middle class and wealthy families who have been taught since birth to strive to get into the most selective schools in order to stay in the upper middle class and the wealthy class.

And so their metrics all somehow, surprise, surprise, result in the same

20 or 30 mostly private or big flagship public universities in the top.