[quote=@catchamber]
What problems don't vanish in the system I've proposed? You can jack up the economic skill base, because that's literally what the internet has done for most of the world, and we just need to archive the data in user friendly formats to maximize skill acquisition, all while bypassing the imposed need for massive student debts that slow economic growth.
[/quote]

Well asking the government to innovate doesn't typically work out, and the priorities are a little out of whack -- how does this help the kids in Chicago who aren't being taught to read? Here's my version: 

1. Government no longer backs or subsidizes ANY aspect of college education. Universities radically reform or starve themselves to death. I [i]suspect[/i] that reformation will look a lot like Catchamber's pretty-smart streamlining of college, only privately (which makes [b]them [/b]accountable and responsible for the quality, rather than a faceless bureaucrat)

2. All that money (all of it) goes to high school infrastructure. Not to teachers, not to unions; kids get the things they need to learn, period. 

3. Once every school (k-12) in America is up to date and current and modern and fully equipped, shut down the DoE entirely. It's up to the states to handle; federal taxes go down and states adjust their rates to locally-desired levels. That way Chicago teachers can focus on what matters for their kids, rather than learning common core or satisfying some asinine quota for No Child Left Behind funding. 

If we sever federal money from education in America, we drive down cost and corruption. It's irresponsible to do that before we clean up the mess we already made by throwing big bucks at the issue and pretending it was a solution; we can roll oversight into the DOJ to handle any discriminatory practices, but the intent is to get the feds the hell out of this. 

Weaknesses: all this is bad for disabled kids, who rely a LOT on federal assistance to make school happen and work. Haven't thought deeply enough about how to keep their interests covered, let's solve that before we burn DeVos's empire to the ground.