No, it should be free up through at least an associates degree at a public school that you can actually use for employment (e.g., STEM is most critical for the survival of the planet, an English degree not so much ... people going into STEM majors at public schools should be subsidized all the way through a bachelors degree, maybe even masters, as we all will be depending on them more than any other majors ... but maybe they might have to pay it back if they just go waste it on a gig at Facebook or other frivolous tech platforms).
Maybe some frivolous majors that will never get you a job might be excluded, and private schools would still be excluded after K-12.
Any of the more elective-like courses that would comprise the bulk of a typical "liberal arts" degree, and are not really like to get anyone employment, should be integrated into K-12 curriculum ... and K-12 needs to include at least one rigorous logic class.
A free education should come with higher expectations though. At the very least, all American kids should be competitive with (or as capable as) Asian kids. The economy is global, and problems are global, and in some cultures kids don't get to f-ck off as much. At the same time, while expecting our own future leaders to be more capable and competitive, they have to be reminded that this is still one planet, nation states are an arbitrary construct, and things like pollution completely ignore imaginary lines on the ground (borders), and invasive non-native flora and fauna should remain in their native ecosystems, and international travel should immediately be locked down at the first sign of any pandemic. And they have to learn that life is never simple, and no one is entitled to convenience and pretending that everything always has a simple/simplistic solution.
K-12 probably needs to start a year earlier (and thus be K-13 ... incidentally, a foreign language is arguably easier to teach when kids are 4 years old, to the degree that a foreign language may still be deemed useful ... but then perhaps a programming language may be more useful), the summer break should be shortened to no more than a month (especially considering a week may be taken off here and there for holidays and such elsewhere during the school term), and it should be more rigorous for everyone, not just "gifted" kids and such. We should be cramming as much useful knowledge as possible into kids, and reinforcing it so that it is not just forgotten by next semester or graduation. Teaching critical thinking is especially important. Future voters should be able to spot conspiracy theories for instance. Perhaps common sense, civility, awareness of one's surroundings, and anti-narcissism has to be taught as well. People should also be taught how to go into a store and shop buy themselves, rather than taking the whole family, and how to not take up both sides of a grocery store aisle simultaneously, and how to not be transfixed by a smartphone at every moment of one's day (perhaps leading to that oblivious blocking of the grocery store aisle). And they needed to be reminded every semester than nothing in this world is actually "disposable."
And divorce sports from the public education system, let the private sector fund that completely as an extracurricular activity independent of education at the K-12 and college levels.
