I'm sympathetic to what you're saying here. Sometimes I think the same. But ultimately I think it's premature optimization for society to directly build in econ

I'm sympathetic to what you're saying here. Sometimes I think the same. But ultimately I think it's premature optimization for society to directly build in economic earning value onto the cost of education. Maybe every major should show prospective students the typical earnings of that major as an indirect influence - but I don't think building that correlation into direct budgeting is a good thing to do in the long term. It would do far more good to first get tuition costs under control and then maybe use the direct funding path as a way where influence on public universities could be had. However, I think society ends up stronger if there's something of a firewall preventing politicians from putting too many specific policy requirements attached to that funding.