Free is just another word...

... for something not paid for, therefore not valued.
How The Government Could Make Public College Free For All Students | ThinkProgress

First, the article conflates total tuition paid at public colleges and universities with federal expenditures for student aid, much of which is spent at private institutions.

But that's not my beef. My beef is with the very idea that it is a good thing for everyone to attend college.

When everyone is entitled to go to public colleges free, and colleges are rated on how many of them graduate, then colleges will have little choice but to give anybody who shows up a degree.

Think it won't happen? Look at public schools. The kids do nothing at all because they know, with perfect certainty, that someone will find a way to give them a diploma. Don't pass the class? No problem, get the credit anyway. Fail the "must pass" test? No problem, do a project.

And what is that diploma worth? I am reminded of my friend who introduced me to his date. 

He said "She's from Tunisia. You can tell because she has two knees." I looked at my own knees, and at him quizzically, and he said with wide eyes "You too?"

A credential that everyone has is worthless.

And before you say that these days you need a college education to get a decent job, that's simply not true. You need the diploma to get hired, but you don't need the education to do almost any job. The answer to that problem is for workers to join trade unions, organize, and develop the bargaining power to get paid for the value of the work they do instead of for simple minded assumptions about their worth as a human being based on a piece of paper on the wall.

Want to be an engineer? A research scientist? A medical care provider? Yes, you need a college education.

Want to be a journalist? A teacher? Yes, you need a college education.

Want to run a business? Manage a company? Fix machines? Get a job doing those things and learn on the job. Go to a trade school to learn applicable skills. College does not prepare you for any of those things.

I am not saying that a broad education is bad for people. But most people who are forced into college so that they can manage a department store are not temperamentally suited to an academic environment.