I don't think you're actually disagreeing, because I think the entire point of the piece was to highlight the discrepancy between the putatively educated meritocracy and the fact that they have in fact not produced all that much merit. I think the "Meritocracy" in the title is intended to be subtly ironic. I think you're supposed to read this and then kvetch about how the meritocracy isn't.

I could copy and paste this as a reply to a number of other people complaining about how misinformed this piece is, then going on to argue in the comment about how the meritocracy isn't. This piece is a fine bit of judo, getting a whole bunch of people who probably would otherwise be defending the dominant educational culture to condemn it, by its own standards.