There are also things I learned in CS (BigO notation, building algorithms from scratch, working in groups) that I don't think I would have picked up easily on m

There are also things I learned in CS (BigO notation, building algorithms from scratch, working in groups) that I don't think I would have picked up easily on my own (or know that it was important to learn). But it's still theory I use all the time when I design and build things at scale. There was a lot I didn't learn in University and that I picked up while working, because I kept my skills up. I know people who graduated from University who only knew Java and never did anything outside of the curriculum. I know other students who played with hardware, hooked up sensors, did assignments in different languages each semester (if the professor allowed it) and went out of their way to learn as much as they could. You get out of any education what you put into it. I do think in-person education is really important though, even in things like Comp Sci. I do think it should be affordable. I went to a small school in a small town and IIRC, my tuition was <$3k per semester (not including books, food and housing of course). It was the early 2000s and I had roommates who worked grocery stores and print shops, and were able to either pay for school with those jobs or pay off their loans within a year or so. During that same time, I met people from other schools with $20k in debt (and that's considered very low today!). No education should cost $100k. That's truly insane.