While you can get something of an education at the community college level,
> IMHO, the education tends to be procedural and not critical. State college
> is better, but it too tends to the procedural.
>
> While some of my best teachers were at the state college level, looking
> back they were under near constant duress. In the last few years I tried to
> trace their career path and they all left CSUN within just a few years of
> when I had them as professors.
>
I confess I have no idea what you mean by "state college," if the category excludes UCB. Is it a CS/UC distinction?
At any rate, the idea of state universities as swamps of mediocrity, and their private counterparts as citadels of excellence, is a bias without much justification. Leaving aside the many profoundly mediocre private schools, the best universities in several states (California, North Carolina, and Virginia spring to mind) remain in the public sector.
And one "can get something of an education" pretty much anywhere. At the post-secondary level, students really determine how much they're going to learn. I have yet to meet anyone who has made an honest effort to get a top-notch education in any accredited, non-profit liberal arts program and failed.
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."