Specifically, I am talking about what is a bachelor’s degree in the US–a 4-year-degree that offers you few special, unique, or licensable skills, unlike a masters’ or doctorate or trade schools.

In my view, this field of higher education is mostly about gating access to a small job market–the supply of jobs is so limitted that people are (decreasingly) willing to go into debt for a crab-in-bucket’s chance at some employment. It also perpetuates class divisions, more now than it did when getting a degree was a real ticket paid non-physical labor.

It’s also a highly extractive industry in its own right–price of higher ed has outstripped inflation for over 30 years while professors are being paid less. People are entering there working lives deeply in debt. This is a systemic issue.

The answer, I think, is not simply gov’t paying for tuition because that does not deal with runaway costs.

Higher education has a priveleged place on the left, since its where many of us gained a broader worldview. But setting that aside, the institution itself qua institution is deeply problematic in the current system.

My only unique contribution to the topic–which I have not heard anywhere else–is removing higher education as bona fide occupational qualification without justification as to specific content or skills w/o other options to demonstrate mastery. That would leverage current law (in the US) to dethrone higher-ed supremacy, because we know most jobs that require or prefer a bachelor’s degree don’t practically really require an education that takes 4 years.