In The Wall Street Journal, Mark Peters and Douglas Belkin compare-and-contrast the return on investment between two-year and four-year degree programs.

Their conclusions can be useful to those contemplating the worth of a college education.

Who earns more, a recent graduate from a flagship state university with a bachelor’s degree or one who finishes a two-year program at a little-known community college?

The answer isn’t so clear.

As states for the first time mine graduates’ salary data from public colleges, they are finding that paychecks for holders of associate degrees in a technical field are outstripping many grads with four-year degrees, at least early in a career.

The growing body of data, from states including Texas, Colorado and Indiana, provides a sober new look at the value of a postsecondary education in a slowly recovering economy.

Overall, the findings reinforce the belief that a college degree is worth the investment. But they highlight the reconsideration of a long-held article of faith that a four-year college degree guarantees at least a middle-class life, while an associate degree is its poor country cousin.

In Indiana, figures show that after a year in the workforce there, a graduate of Ivy Tech Community College makes more on average than a graduate of Indiana University.

In Colorado, Tessa DeVore earned a two-year nursing degree from Front Range Community College in 2010. The degree cost her $23,000, but her starting salary was $53,000.

“At my hospital, the salary doesn’t increase any faster if you have a four-year degree,” she said. “For me, this was absolutely the way to go.”