I work with a guy....retired Air Force. His 18-year old daughter came up and not only was she attending full-college but she was going the next state over, thus triggering out-of-state tuition ($25.5k a year just for tuition alone). He argued on both fronts...attend community college and attend within their state. He lost the argument via his wife.
The daughter and wife both believed that the community college effort takes away from the full effort and gives you a lesser education (community colleges are run by professors who aren’t as good as the full-up college was their argument). Plus there were these various classes which community colleges typically don’t carry compared to a full-up four-year university.
So my associate packed up and moved himself and the daughter to the next state...fifty miles from the house he owns, and he works & lives right there where the daughter is attending college. He has saved on various joint expenses and has some control over his daughter in the first year of this episode, so she’s not out partying.
I tend to believe as a minimum...a kid ought to attend the first year at a community college. What you tend to see is that a quarter of all kids going to a full-up four-year school....will mostly party and get drunk throughout the first year, and then get mostly F’s, then exit and never return to college, period. Using the local community college and making them live at home, you have some ability to monitor them and ensure they don’t do stupid things.
Last I checked, 18 was an adult. Let her pay her own damn way. We don't need to be nanny-state to the kids at that age. They should be ON THEIR OWN.