I'm interested in hearing counter arguments.
First, the education section takes up relatively little space, and a good school will quickly get the reader's interest.
Secondly, by the end of your work experience section, the reader has probably formed an opinion of you, and a good school won't do much to recover from a mediocre list of jobs.
Of course, none of this actually affects your qualifications for the job. However, HR people usually see things a bit differently than an engineer would...
On the other hand, if you're a developer and still have your degree at the top of the page after 7-10 years, my gut-check-needle drops into danger zone and while I will read the work experience part, I do it with the knowledge that you think you've wasted all that valuable learning time. This is extra true for people from prestigious schools.
To answer why I do the opposite, I am (still!) working in France, and unfortunately academic achievement and diplomas are more rated than experience, when you are under 30 (which is my case).
When I do a resume that targets the USA, I usually remove the picture and invert those parts.
EDIT: Embarrassingly, I seem to have lost my bullets. Have to dig back in and find them.
Thanks a lot :)