It seems like something in the middle would be a good idea. Low cost, 2 year program, sufficient to cover some theory — but CS only, unlike community college associate degrees today. Do we really need to pay $10,000-30,000/year for gen. ed.?
I learned more about software on my own and by working with some of the physicists who specialized in data analysis that I did in any of my CS classes. Many of the CS junior/senior level CS students couldn't do anything real-world. Couldn't hand-optimize code. They also couldn't get anywhere without a fancy IDE that did everything for them.
Had an argument with one of the faculty members about the viability of Python as a useful language. They dismissed it as anything more useful than a scripting language, and likened it to an uppity BASH substitute. I argued that when used properly, it is a very dynamic language with many uses.
All in all, the faculty was all over the board. There was a particular faculty member who was fairly skilled with machine learning and NLP. Until he went on vacation, joined a cult, wiped the NLP research server, and went around campus spouting how the planets were going to align the following December and life as we know it would end.
So the student body wasn't top notch, which is perhaps to be expected at a CC (no entrance exams), but how was the faculty?
A free degree is always nice.
>Do we really need to pay $10,000-30,000/year for gen. ed.?
General education is very valuable if you're not so myopic as to believe you already know everything.