Higher education is publicly funded by a large degree, via all kinds of government grants and government-guaranteed loans. Unfortunately, while it is funded on a premise that higher education equals better employment - and thus better contribution to the economy, which is supposed to more than offset the cost of the funding - the reality is that many of the degrees sponsored in such way do not produce this result, and instead only transfer money from taxpayers to people running these degree programs and on the way seriously mess up lives of many people by making them waste time and get into various financial obligations based on assumptions that never come true.

This is why system is broken. If you want unbroken system, there should be a link between how much particular degree raises the income of its owner (after paying off the loans) and the public funding available to those seeking such degrees. If you want to study aspects of underwater basket weaving in medieval French poetry - be my guest, but do not expect a dime of public funds to be invested in it.

>>>> higher learning institutions should help you explore your interests regardless of the applicability of those interests to employment.

That is true only if you ignore the premise that is described above. However, since the public support of the higher education availability is largely based on this exact premise, I do not see how you can ignore it.