Or instead, like most other advanced societies, we could stop trying to quantify higher education in purely personal economic return on investment grounds and consider an educated populace a public good.
The incessant obsession with multi-year degree-granting programs specifically is a lot more about the degree than the education.
Both the UK and the US (and I say this as someone who's taught at universities in both countries) face the problem that the majority of people going to college now are going just because they need a degree to get a job, not because they have any interest in learning anything.
Education is a public good. Forcing people through diploma mills isn't.
If you're taking courses at a private college part-time, sure their tuition is a lot higher; taking just one course like Fundamentals of Instructional Technology from RIT Online is $3,243 [2]. Four-year public universities will probably cost somewhere in-between but it varies a lot by state.
[0] https://www.bhcc.edu/tuition/tuitionfees-fall2018/ [1] http://www.ccsf.edu/en/student-services/admissions-and-regis... [2] http://www.rit.edu/ritonline/course/2181-1-HCIN-660-01
For reference, that's how much my mother was paid to be an adjunct professor at a local community college to teach 10-20 students a 3 credit course for a semester.
Something seems wrong with the pricing
A lot of tuition paid is not for the instuctor but for infrastructure and administrative costs inherent to running a school. Some of the money paid for your mother’s course probably went toward paying non-adjunct faculty; it’s not like schools charge different rates based on the instructor or what they’re paid.
Educated populace in video game history isnt value added like an engineering degree.
You can educate yourself in anything, but society only values education in a few value-added sectors.
Also, the quality of the education is not the same.