The whole college thing is kind of messed up IMHO. Mind you, I have a very biased way of looking at things, but I'll try to explain. Also keep in mind that this is based on the US system as I have very little idea how other places work.
First off, college is for
furthering education, not something that's required. A high school education
should be enough for someone to find a job providing a liveable income (though certainly not a lavish one). There are many jobs that someone needs to do but nobody really wants to. Take waste management; who want's to go around picking up people's garbage? But someone needs to do it. With our (again IMHO) decreasing standards, we've fairly botched this one, so now everyone thinks they should have to go to college. We're at a point where not going to college is a great disadvantage, but a college education was traditionally something for privileged individuals. Now, everyone thinks they have a right to go to college and that the government should pay for it.
That throws people into a predicament of having to pay for college. And of course, if you're going to go to college, you should go to the best college in your field. Private institutions and out-of-state prices leave many students graduating with 100k debt or so. On the other hand, public schools are typically much more affordable. And there are scholarships and grants that help students afford some means of an education. Affording school can be done, it just requires a lot of work depending on your background. Neither of my parents (or grandparents) ever got anything beyond a 2-year degree, but somehow my parents have managed to put me and my sister through 4 years (well, I'm done in 3, and my sister's just starting...). We both are going to public schools with in-state tuition, and it's actually affordable at the moment. With continuing tuition rate hikes, I don't think that'll last long though (there was a proposition at my school to double tuition, then use the increased money to provide more grants to those who couldn't afford the hike; however, if they were to double it, those who could still afford it would probably go to a similarly priced public school and those who couldn't afford it would not get the grants needed).
One rather handy way to get a college degree in the US is to join the armed forces. The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) pays like $40k/yr for tuition or $100k total (I can't remember). Plus they give you a little spending money too, and you're guaranteed a job (even a career) as soon as you graduate. The obvious drawback: you're stuck in the <armed force of choice> for 4 years. The not-so-obvious drawback: students often get the quickest degree they can (quite often history or English).
Which leads me to one of my most biased points. Liberal arts degrees are largely, IMO, a huge waste of time and money. There are many students who go to college not knowing what they want to do, get a degree, and then (still not knowing what they want to do) go out and find a job. They usually end up doing the same things as someone who only finished high school, but they've got college loans to pay off as well. I will certainly acknowledge that there are people who take their LA degrees and put them to use (e.g. English majors becoming authors, history majors continuing in that field, etc...). But the others are just wasting their time and everyone's resources.
One other problem with the system is the illusion to students that after 4 years they'll be able to start a career in their field. While that is true for some (including myself), it is quite often not the case. For many of the liberal arts and sciences, a full-blown career requires a great background in related academia, or to put it simply, a graduate degree. Doctors for example have PhDs. Would you go to a doctor who didn't? Similarly, even professors usually have to have a PhD in the field they teach. What kind of career would you have starting with only a Bachelor's degree in, say, chemistry?
So, how do we solve these problems? Well, we can't just change the system. It's like the gun thing; it's been this way, and you have to work really slowly to get anything to change. But there are a few things that IMHO should be done.
To help people pay for college, the government should implement a civil service system. For each year you attend school, the government will pay tuition costs and provide a small bit of spending money on the side. In exchange, after you graduate you should have to spend a year in the field in which you studied. Good luck to LA students, but the engineering and science graduates would get a great boon from this sytem. Not only do they get their degree, but they also get some experience before they branch out into their own careers (and they could even keep a career in their respective civil service field). This system obviously has many basic flaws, such as people changing majors, double majors, or not finishing degrees, etc... but it's an idea.
We also need to clear up a few misperceptions, specifically those about needing a degree or what a degree will actually help for. A history or English degree isn't worth a lot unless you want to work in those fields. A history degree probably requires graduate level studies before you can make a career of it, too. For people who don't know what field they want to study, they should probably not be working towards random, whimsical degrees. The latter problem could (and arguably should) be taken care of during the later parts of the required education system. Specialized curriculums should be introduced at the high school level so that students can begin to see what working in a particular field entails. One problem with this is that students still don't have much idea of what they want at that age, and that the high school period is still quite short to get the general education and a specialized one on top of that.
There should also be more short length training programs for specific jobs. Being a network admin shouldn't require a 4 year degree in Info Systems. Another example would be machinists. What would they study for 4 years? Their field depends largely on acquiring experience, not so much on book learning.
Just my verbose $0.02...
Unsolved 
Offline 
