Education Bubble & Professional Certification

Recently, I've been considering on whether or not to take a certification class.  It's expensive, though not long, approximately 3, 8 weeks classes, then a test for certification.  The problem is that I don't have the $4,500.00 to $5,500.00 dollars to pay for it.  I think that I can "qualify" for educational tuition assistance (another term for "government money"), but I'm not entirely certain that it would be worth it.  The class would merely give me "credentials" that I can do a particular facet of work...the classes I'm looking are are for a certification in "project management".

Villanova  University and the Boston University Corporate Education Center are the two schools I'm looking at.  The courses are all online, which from my point of view makes things vastly easier as I won't have to juggle work and classes.  But would it be worth it to get yet another piece of paper?  With the past year's vast underemployment, my family savings are, literally, gone, so I don't have money saved for this sort of thing.  On the other hand, I might be able to actually get a job in construction project management if I do? 

Has anyone out there actually taken a class like this?  Is it worth the money?  Here's the Villanova course outline:

Overview:
http://www.universityalliance.com/info1/UA_PDFs/Villanova/T2-Disciplines/Villanova_ProjMgmt_T2.pdf

Syllabus
http://www.universityalliance.com/Info1/Curriculum/Villanova/Villy%20Course%20PDFs/EssentialsofProjectManagement.pdf
http://www.villanovau.com/Content/Docs/MasteringProjectManagement.pdf
http://www.universityalliance.com/info1/Curriculum/Villanova/ProjectManagement/ProjectManagementProfessionalPMPPrep.pdf

Possible 4th class:
http://www.villanovau.com/Content/Docs/SixSigmaGreenBelt.pdf
http://www.villanovau.com/Content/Docs/AdvancedStrategicProjectManagementPractices.pdf

Any input would be greatly apprecited, as I'd hate to actually scrounge up the money to pay for this only to find out that it's not worth the dollars.