Isn't this completely off-topic? Anyway ... Our society currently values a college education. How many companies are going to hire you if you only have a high school diploma? Other than those that may require a portfolio (e.g., art, music, programming, web design, etc.), there are few. You can't even apply for medical or graduate school without a bachelor's or equivalent.
No one said that the Democrats are pushing for students to go to four-year colleges. They want to allow students to receive the financial aid to do so, and they want to prevent the predatory for-profit schools from abusing the system.
I agree that the best solution is a free college education (or one that is so heavily subsidized that it is inexpensive, like in most other countries). The problem is that the education system in the US is broken, partially by design. The US is practically the only developed country in the world with a strong private college system, and this elitism only means that more money is being funneled away from public schools and into the deep pockets of private schools. I went to UC Berkeley, which has about five times as many undergraduate students as Harvard or Yale, but the endowment is only approximately one-tenth and one-seventh of those schools', respectively.