Why the Hell would anyone send a kid to college anymore?
There are still a handful of serious colleges out there. They are just harder to find because few to none of them are public, and most are quite small and not well known. An example is Hillsdale College in Michigan. Unfortunately I didn't hear about this school until I had finished college elsewhere, I would have been interested in it. It does lean more libertarian then conservative, but it takes academics seriously and is well rounded. My former pastors kids went there and they seem very happy with it. Its probably best known for refusing any and all taxpayer funds.
Also some colleges run by church denominations or at least affiliated with one can be good or at least ok. Those are harder to figure out, as many have been overtaken as well. There will often be some liberal professors and staff, but they tend to be the classical type liberals. An example is where I went, Trinity Christian College in Illinois. Its affiliated (but not run by) the Christian Reformed and Reformed denominations. But people come from many denominations not just those two, but the student body is probably overall more conservative then the college itself. Generally, most of these types of schools will be on the smaller side, so that is often not viewed well by some kids who like the idea of a big school. Note, that I am not talking about Bible colleges, as those tend to only train people wanting to enter the ministry and rarely offer anything else. They are generally liberal arts, with some professional departments (education, business, nursing, engineering etc).
If your Catholic, there are some good Catholic schools out there too. Ava Maria University in Florida, which is a fairly new school. Thomas Aquinas College in California is another. Both small schools, and unfortunately many Catholics don't know they exist.
And you have to keep in mind too, is that it may often be ONE department at a school that has gone off the rails. A school may have a garbage humanities department but a top notch engineering or STEM program. Not every department at every school has been infested. And since most of those types of universities rarely have a CORE requirement anymore, a student can skip the ruined classes completely.
It's a tough job to find the right school for yourself or your children. It shouldn't be taken lightly, especially if your child is still impressionable or rebellious.
The biggest problem with avoiding college now a days is that it will deny employment in many fields. Don't have the "paper", we won't even read your resume.
It's also much harder "to back into a field" like in the past (I'm 41 by the way). I know quite a few people in their 60's and up that got into something, just because they were in the place they were. They got trained by someone or an employer that saw "potential", and did the learning completely outside the education system. That doesn't happen much anymore, unfortunately, because now, most employers think they can just hire someone that already has the skills they want. Most never see the potential in a current employee that would be the right person, if they just look past the lack of the "right" piece of paper. Hoping you get "noticed" is a bad career move (I know I have tried!!). It only worked in the past, when there was pretty much full employment back in the 1950's and 60's, employers knew there wasn't anybody else. Now they think there is, even if there really isn't.
Another point I would like to make too. College is often wasted on the "college aged". Frankly many people should not go until they are older. College should be for ALL ages not just geared to the "college aged". Many people in their 30's and 40's do quite well taking college classes, in fact much better then the 18-24 aged group.
On the subject of trade schools, picking one of those is just as tough. Unlike colleges (though that has gotten more muddy over the last couple of decades for non professional programs), there is often no clear path to follow. It can be tougher to figure out the eventual employment that follows. Often the schools aren't very good, or they train outdated skills or for jobs that no longer exist. Often run by labor unions, if your not connected, you will never be admitted in the first place (as unions often are trying to decrease rather then increase the amount of people trained to do something). Its harder to just the quality of them as they tend to come and go. Colleges tend to last for decades, but trades schools don't. There is no "Harvard" of the plumbing world.
Would I have gone to college had I known then, what I know now? Good question. In some ways college for me was a waste of my time and money. In other ways it's the best couple of years of my life.
I will tell you one thing. Higher education of ALL kinds (college, trade, on the job etc) need some major reforms. Overall its failing for the majority and for our society. More accountability, flexibility, affordability just to name a few, are all needed badly, and frankly, they aren't happening in a major way.