I've thought for years that in a generation the distinction between haves and have-nots won't be private v. public universities, but online v. human instruction.
Online coursework didn't used to be very cheap for universities - they said it was, but conveniently forgot to include overhead or support in their calculations - but now with so many people able to work the web and post stuff, it probably is. I notice that some universities charge a surcharge for online courses, to support the capital investment, etc. For the essentially exclusive online schools, the real cost saving is in the faculty - lots of that online stuff is taught by people who would never get university appointments (disclaimer: I'm an in-person actual human university prof). The very worst, I think, are the online companies that prey on our troops in the Middle East. One allows a soldier to get an AA degree by taking one course and getting lots of life experience and military training credit. The online operations have their own accrediting agency and not all US universities respect that accreditation when assessing applicants (e.g., for grad school).
The www is far more useful for some disciplines than others. Computer stuff is an example of where keeping up to the minute is pretty important, and there's lots of good instruction available. But other disciplines aren't so amenable - history, philosophy, social sciences. Slashdot readers might in the group where online work is most appropriate, and I'm seeing a lot of divided opinions even here.