Should the cost of higher education be reduced?

As far as the cost of a degree being financially justified, virtually none are.

A little while ago I did some research on trade school vs. academia.

Trade school is almost always shorter, so the graduate gets several years head start on earnings. The college grad almost never catches up.

Seems like the increase in costs of higher education have outpaced both inflation and people's earning capacity for many years now. The debt kids are coming out of school with is crushing now

Since educating the young is an investment in the future of a nation, I am all for the government stumping up for it in large measure. But lets be fair. The nation needs Doctors, nurses, engineers, (laywers is debatable) but it doesnt need more Egyptologists or people with a Masters in remedial Macrame. So lets have a scale of fee subsidy in line with the projected requirements of the nation, which can be reviewed every few years. If you want to study something not on the list, you pay higher fees.

So if we reduce the cost of education, who is going to pay for it? Higher education is not free

Depends if you want society to be educated. I think they like us dumb so we stay dependent on them.