Your math is incomplete. The whole formula includes interest rates and total amortized cost as well as the average / median income, cost of living, time to employment, and employment rates of new graduates. Additional exercises for the reader: find the average TTL of full loan repayment (~20 years) and the percent of graduates where debt exceeds earnings (~20%).

This isn't to say that degree attainment isn't statistically better on average, much like paying off ransomware. The price of tuition seems to reflect the lack of reasonable alternatives more than the intrinsic value of the education.