if you're about to a make a third business mistake, then why not stop it before you do?

ours was about 2K. although, they overbilled us at nearly 3K so make sure you get estimates in writing.

This is what happens when the government interferes with the free market! The supply of virtually unlimited, guaranteed federal loans has created a moral hazard. Loan companies don't care to hand out risky loans because they have the backing of the federal government. Since students have access to so much "free" money, they are entering colleges in droves, effectively bidding up tuition prices for the rest of us. Without such a supply, loan companies would be much more stringent (tuition would come down) and some students would not be able to enter college. While this may sound bad, its not because certain college degrees are becoming worthless anyway and some students have no business of earning degrees in human resources management from the University of Phoenix.

Given a harmful, self-reinforcing cycle produced by multiple independent actors making (fairly predictable) decisions, I'm curious why you think it's correct to single out a particular part of the cycle as being the problem.

At any link in the chain, someone could have said "this is a bad idea" and stopped--but instead they do what's in their own (short-term) best interest, and everyone loses.

The harmful part is the distortion of the market -- by the government; all other private individuals and organizations ultimately have to bear the result of their choices. The government through force takes money and distorts the market -- no other actor in the equation has that power.

Why should education cost money to begin with?

I agree that it is somewhat useful to have these ancillary classes such as marketing, finance which would complement well with a degree in engineering i.e. computer science, materials science, biomedical etc.