I do NOT believe that conventional college classes, with in-person instructors and a real person grading exams, should be an entitlement.
I do believe that technology has advanced to the point where many subjects can be entirely automated, with online courses, recorded lectures, and electronically administered and graded exams. For those kinds of classes, standard tuition doesn’t make sense anymore. They could be offered either for free (with the cost of maintaining the servers covered either by donations), or at a small cost.
I also think we’ve reached the point technologically where some majors could be earned by taking an exam. Proving that you know the material is more important than proving how long you sat in the seat.
Pay a fee, take the exam, done.
Some colleges are already making moves in this direction.
That was supposed to say “either by donations, or included in the cost of IT for the rest of the school.”
I tested out two years of college while in the Army for free.