If you were going to hire a programmer to work for/with you, what level of CS education would you prefer them to have and why? This assumes all other things are equal which, of course, they never are in real life.

Self taught? Bachelor's? Masters? PHD?

The important part of the answer is why, not the level. I'm looking for how important people think a Computer Science education really is and if one can go too far.

A little clarification: To make things a little more even, assume you're hiring them without a lot of work experience. Obviously having a higher education is of less value the farther you are from graduation.