Discussion of this sort comes up quite often on homeschooling lists (or did, back in the day). The short version is that this is the difference between "training" and "education". "Training" is what America generally wants to provide to, say, people on welfare so we can tell them "get off the dole and get a job" (while simultaneously making it outright illegal to aspire to a better life/follow your dreams -- last I heard, you can attend a two year degree program while on welfare but not a four year degree program). "Education" is broader preparation for life, not just preparation for a job per se. Lots of American universities are increasingly offering degrees that are essentially intended as "job training" of some sort.

Slice of life: I happen to have an Associate of Arts in Humanities and a Certificate in GIS. The certificate in GIS was gotten as "job training" and I am still paying on the student loan that was needed. I have never worked in GIS and the job I do have started at about half the pay as the GIS-related jobs I was interviewing for. On the upside, attending GIS school helped me get boatloads of life-saving drugs from doctors who wouldn't prescribe me anything while I was mostly bedridden. So I consider that student loan kind of a "medical bill"/cost of survival, never mind my (relatively mild) bitterness at how utterly my well-laid career plans* fell through.

<shrug>

* FWIW: those career plans included a future Master's in Urban Planning. There are relatively few bachelor's programs in urban planning. For this reason, most planners have some other major at the bachelor's level. Liberal Arts majors (at the bachelor level) are not terribly uncommon in that profession, from what I gather.