The Costs of higher education is making America less of a meritocracy

Kathleen Pender, in the San Francisco Chronicle, has an article on some of the costs of higher education particularly of books. After reading it, I wonder if the fact that it costs so much to go to College in the United States isn't going to start to become more of an impediment to the creation of a more egalitarian society.  This might create a wider gap between the have and the have not because after all education is still the surest way to move out of poverty and to move up the social ladder.