This is crap. Yes, CS has important theory you won't learn about in "hacker school", but it's not like the (ridiculously expensive) education itself is necessary. Everything you need is on wikipedia and stackoverflow.
In theory, you don't need college to learn much of anything. In practice, few people are going to correctly teach themselves discrete mathematics within a reasonable timeframe.
A graded evaluation is valuable, agreed. I submit that instructors, peers, and an instructional environment are also of value in aiding the learning process.
The degree is evidence of a graded evaluation, which is a proxy for education. Despite some propaganda to the contrary, it is not a zero-correlation proxy.
Also, I don't know about you, but I went to college for an education. Which I received.