I think it makes perfect sense. Absorbing the actual content of your classes is dead last on a list of reasons to go to college (somewhat higher if you're doing science, engineering etc). Reason number one is to get that piece of paper, learning how to be an adult and making friends/future business contacts are very close behind. Especially in this day and age, there's so much information out there that anyone with a library card or an internet connection can give themselves a world-class education.
True: here is more Free Online Courses from great universities http://universitiesandcolleges.org/free-online-college-courses/ Many employers (esp government agencies) still want to see that piece of paper. America needs some accredited examination and testing service to provide the "degree equivalency exams" for Baccalaureate to students who learn on their own via online courses or books. These students should not have to pay fortune to some for-profit Scam U to get their diploma. Obama can initiate the program if he wants to see more graduates and lower student debt. India now has open University. Why not USA?
Just what America needs, another federal government program and more spending. How about NO federal government spending for any educational purposes; let the states handle it. How about eliminating the US Dept. of Education? Start there with reducing the deficit.
That is good too. Since Obama said he wants US to have the greatest number of graduates, he should do something. All I suggest here is that there is something he can do that would be a saving over the current programs. Testing service can be private - like the SAT and other professional testing programs. The testing service would be a HUGE SAVINGS over all the loan defaults caused by the for-profit Scam U's scamming the federally guaranteed student loan program. It would be a low-cost program compare to what we have now.
If one compares higher education pre- and post- Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the contrast is rather striking. The changes did not happened overnight, but they had their origin in the Great Society and Johnson's idea that no one should be denied a college education because of cost. This eventually got transformed into simply "everyone should go to college". Prior to the Great Society only about 38% of high school graduates went on to four year colleges or universities, and students were tracked into college prep. or vocational careers starting in Junior high. Tracking is now a thing of the past in public schools, but some de facto tracking still occurs via magnate schools or other schools where there are specific admission requirements. Previously, there was no need for remedial programs in colleges. Now there is. Previously students were made to be responsible for their education, and under performing students were dismissed. Today the faculty and schools are blamed if a student does poorly. These attitude changes eventually affected even the public and private colleges and universities with rigorous admission standards, but to a much lesser extent than they did the schools with less rigorous admission standards.
Johnson's idea that no one should be denied a college education because of cost. This eventually got transformed into simply "everyone should go to college". Now "everyone should go to college"has become "everyone should graduate from college". Not only colleges now have lower admission standards, many also lower their graduation standards. In another decade or two, a college degree won't amount to anything. It doesn't mean much today. Tuition fees goes up, standards goes down. The new Scam U's taking huge taxpayer guaranteed student loan leaving too many students with huge debt that they cannot repay.
What people REALLY miss is that college educates you. It does not. It TRAINS you. Education is up the individual. College is a great place to get trained AND educated, but most people leave with a degree, which means nothing more than you are not a quitter. You have been trained as an engineer, nurse, doctor, lawyer, etc. Educated people get rich, trained people work for the educated. Hope this helps. And yes, I went to college, at a school that was ranked behind GT and MIT in engineering. So I would have been trained really well. In my third year I decided to get educated. So glad I did!