It depends on what kind of job you want, I suppose. If you want to work on the more esoteric aspects of technology (OS or Database development) then your CS degree will be more relevant than if you want to make end-user-facing applications. Application development in the industry is far more about the product than it is about the technology.
As far as your experience with your less educated coworkers, if you look around you will find bad programmers of all backgrounds. You will find great programmers of all backgrounds. It's a fair question to ask if college is worth the incredible cost.
Considering the fact that if you apply for scholarships, get good grades is high school and good ACT/SAT scores, and you can get funding from the government, college can be relatively inexpensive. I went to a private school with comparable tuition to MIT and I walked out with only around 50k in debt. If I went to a public university, it would have been much less. So, I have about as much debt as this company took to train a bunch of high schoolers.
Although I agree that college costs are high, they aren't insurmountable if you apply for scholarships, government funding (FASA), and you do well in school or sports.
As far as your experience with your less educated coworkers, if you look around you will find bad programmers of all backgrounds. You will find great programmers of all backgrounds. It's a fair question to ask if college is worth the incredible cost.