I’m of the opinion that college along with viable vocational training leading to well-paid available jobs should be affordable…preferably free for all who want it provided they meet the academic/training prerequisites to ensure a minimum chance of students flunking/dropping out due to underpreparation or not taking the education/training seriously. I do feel doing so is a good long-term investment for everyone in society.
Incidentally, the heyday of inexpensive/free college education for all who qualified was from the '40s-'60s. CCNY/CUNY was free for city residents provided they were able to meet pretty stringent academic requirements for admission up until 1969.
After open admissions was implemented in that system, free tuition continued for a little while until the combination of state/city financial crises* and the CUNY system being flooded with students in need of serious academic remediation meant they had to discontinue free tuition for city residents by 1975.
The '70s was the start of when free completely ended and inexpensive tuitions was starting to fade away.
Interestingly, many on the GI bill ended up being some of the academically best students with a far greater focus on their studies than traditional undergrads who hadn’t gone into the military. Recalled seeing an interview with several WWII/Korea veterans who recounted doing far better in HS/college than they had before they were drafted/joined up. I also observed a similar trend among most undergrads/grad students who served before attending college/grad school. They also had far better studying skills/habits which were comparable to the best students I knew from my public magnet HS and undergrad summer/grad school.
The only exception was a former Marine E-5 who talked a great game about being academically prepared only to drop the summer course(Econ) we were taking after 2 weeks because he was getting failing marks on his homework and quizzes.
It still stands out in my mind to this day as he was the only military veteran among many I’ve observed in summer college courses/grad school whose academic performance WASN’T at a high academically achieving level.