There was a time when we also thought that education helped us to learn about the world, be critical thinkers, involved citizens, and to grapple with moral and ethical questions. Being able to read great books, write coherently, and understand mathematical and scientific concepts enhanced our ability to navigate the world. Remember the liberal arts degree? That wasn't about job training. Education has many benefits that aren't measured by dollars.

The problem is, a lot of that stuff could've and frankly should've been taken care of at the high school level. Things like being able to read and write coherently shouldn't be up to colleges to teach. If we can't handle those at the high school level, then we're doing an even larger disservice to our country.

They also aren't because of various issues with our public school education systems, and because we have some pretty low standards for education in the US compared to other countries in the world, where things like learning second languages or having higher math standards is common.

And those ideas are all great in concept, but what about in execution? Are those college students who try to shut down free speech on campus these days critical thinkers learning about the world? Or those guys who helped cause the financial crisis of 2008, they were all universally college graduates? They were all college graduates as well.

And as a matter of public policy, that's fantastic that education has many benefits that aren't measured by dollars, but ultimately we're still paying money, something that is finite - and if we can't even get better high school educations going, then making college affordable isn't going to fix a deeper problem.