But I still believe that any calculus of “reasonable” college has to include community college. Sure, it is incumbent upon states to make their college systems integrate, at least wrt to highlighting transferable courses etc. California has been working on this for the past decade, albeit painfully, since academics like to protect their fiefdoms and the old, government-designed computer systems, require a LOT of IT help to get them to talk to each other.
That being said, it make little $$ sense to me to send kids to a four-year college where they will take a bunch of remedial courses. In California, again as a example, over half of the students matriculating to the Cal State system require remediation. At some campuses, its over 90%. Essentially, we are paying professors salaries to teach high school level courses. Makes no sense, at least to me, since that is extremely inefficient.
But we can make community colleges work, more efficiently, and at much less cost than the 4-year. For example,