I think that college and secondary schooling are worth what you invest into them. The cost of attendance is not an investment in either case. If you cannot afford the cost of attendance, which is significant, then you should not consider attendance in either at all.

Your personal effortful reading and learning, and demonstrated efforts to apply that learning make up the investment so to speak. Ultimately, internet repositories, professional mentors, and public libraries are worth more than college degrees in and of themselves, but not everyone can access and leverage these resources properly, due to lack of information literacy or professional and academic preparation.

Simply put, college is not worth it—-you are what’s worth it. Invest in yourself, through paid or free human resource development, and you will reap rewards. If you attend college without applying yourself properly, you will have made zero progress and also face a financial deficit. If you do not attend college but manage to apply yourself and be resourceful, you will have certainly made significant progress and you will have avoided debt.

I think college is still the best preparation to become an educator, which I am (Ph.D. with 15y experience in academia).