> Education is free. Credentials are not.

So, the least expensive part of the process is the only one that you have to pay an exorbitantly ridiculous amount. I stand by my calling you nuts.

K-12 is the least expensive part? I'm willing to be convinced but I don't buy that. If you look at a State School tuition would have to be 3x more than what K-12 would cost for parents. I say state school because I feel that's the best comparison to HS on what it would cost, but again I might be wrong. I just haven't read anything saying that college is the most $$ part compared to K-12 before.

The "least expensive part" he was referring to is, I believe, the piece of paper.

You can get vast amounts of education for free nowadays, but if you didn't do it through the approved structure and pay the right people for it, to many people (particularly those hiring), you don't count as knowing any of it. You need the piece of paper, even though it's the actual education that costs so much to create.

That would completely change my answer. Thank you for that perspective.

A lot of the disconnect here comes from the signalling aspect of getting a degree. It's not just that you're educated - otherwise companies would have more skills-based hiring - it's that you've proven willing to work through a dysfunctional system to get a fundamentally worthless piece of paper.

People willing to work through systems of that sort make for less disruptive employees.