Compared to a life time of increased earning potential that is peanuts.
What would you ballpark a person needs to make in addition per hour post 25 years of age till retirement at 65 to make college worth while?
better just to get a a high school diploma and get a $60.000 with the local government and have NO DEBT
Which rarely happens. 30% have no debt, and the rest average at a piddling $30k.
Well, swell. Judging from the responses to this thread, the answer to “should public schools have more job training,” the answer is, “no, because everyone should just go university and get a four year degree.” Makes me wonder what all the fuss is about where people talk about one trillion dollars in student debt, skill gaps in trades, the aging skill labor pool in the US, and mediocre performance by US students in an expensive system. I misunderstood the situation entirely. Everything’s hunky-dory over there and nothing needs changing. Glad to hear. 
That’s kind of true. With more than seven payback plans (two of which offer income based payments and eventual forgiveness) student loan debt is more of an annoyance than a deal breaker. US public schools are entirely average for developed countries, and our universities continue to be, without question, the best in the world. I’m not an expert in the skills gap in trades, but I do know that the market tends to fill those sorts of things fairly quickly, and of course nothing about a college degree precludes one from a trade.
But “things are generally okay” makes for poor scare headlines, which is why you instead get an endless parade of crisis.
If there is a scandal to be had, it’s predatory for-profits colleges. But we are quickly working to regulate those.
The old US medical system worked just fine for middle class and better Americans, too. I wonder why they changed that?
The difference is that to fix the education, you really have to fix the poverty. The success of any education system is primarily a function of parent involvement, health and nutrition, and access to books and extracurricular activities.
Cite, please.
In several European countries what we have is “trades high schools”; whether getting your Electrician, Administrative Assistant or HVAC degree at 17 works better than getting it at 20, I can’t tell, but the training they get is completely job-oriented (the most esoteric stuff they get is things like “basic accounting”, which anybody should know whether self-employed or not). I’ve also seen “apprenticeship schools” directed towards older people, getting them those same degrees as a way to help them after prison, divorce, or simply after getting their heads out of their asses at an age when being in class with 14yos would be strange.
The vast majority of high schools already offer a vocational track and millions of kids already participate in it. Could we push it more? Sure. But this is a “problem” that was solved decades ago.