Some state universities are under such incredible demand; your plan will require building many new ones.
Which, in relative terms, is not that hard: simply re-purpose state prisons.
Which, in relative terms, is not that hard: simply re-purpose state prisons.
If you filter out a lot of students early on, you don't need to build new ones.
People going to college should consider it a valuable use of their time, not a necessary credential for entering the workforce. Guess which of those I believe drives college admissions right now.
Of course many careers will benefit from a college education, but here in the US we have long since surpassed that number of people attending college.
Because education is important, and our society is helped by everyone having access to improve their lives. I don't want to get into an automation discussion, but I personally believe that it will be even more important in the next few decades.
> People going to college should consider it a valuable use of their time, not a necessary credential for entering the workforce
I completely agree! But I think that is a separate problem. I'd love to go to school for things completely unrelated to my career. I don't think college should necessarily be easy, but getting into it should be. I personally believe that encouraging people to further educate themselves, especially "non-intellectuals"* , is a great way for everyone to benefit.
IME, most people who skip college aren't skipping it because they are dumb, but because they don't have the resources to attend easily. In my own experience: High-school wasn't reflective of my current educational desires. I want to attend more college classes, but don't have the resources to do so. I live a pretty simple lifestyle, and if college isn't easily accessible to me, I can't see how it's accessible to people with kids, two jobs, etc
* : I don't know how else to phrase that without sounding condescending. If someone has a better wording, let me know.
If the problem is that there are many qualified students who can't get into college because there isn't enough supply, then the answer is to build new 4-year universities or reduce demand. Demand can be reduced by offering more vocational training opportunities or 2-year degree programs.
If the problem is that college is too expensive, that gets back to state funding of public universities as well as tuition inflation.
I think I can't really explain that system well, so here is a short pdf that explains the options you have in the Swiss education system:
http://www.edudoc.ch/static/web/bildungssystem/grafik_bildun...