I don't think the problem of higher education is affordability, there are more bachelor/master/phd graduates than ever. The problem is the content, and the methodology. A great deal of college comes down to little more than: read a book, do some exercises, and then tests to verify you learned what was in the book. But much of that is at the wrong level, too much breadth, not enough actual mastery of the fundamentals. The result is CS graduates who struggle on anything other than non-trivial programming projects, or chemistry graduates who don't understand that the bulk of the weight of a piece of wood comes from CO2.

Sadly, most of the "value" of college today is due to the failure of high schools. If you require a basic level of literacy, numeracy, computer literacy, etc. you have to set your level at college graduates, since a HS diploma no longer guarantees such skills.