BG – your list of “dont’s” really depends on a lot of things. If they own $900k of property, paid off and want to spend $50k getting a degree for themselves of a kid, why not?

A couple alternatives which haven’t been considered:
(a) Send kids to college abroad. A family friend sent his son to med school in Poland. Much cheaper than in the US, level of education is equivalent these days, and some of the coursework was actually done in the US via an “exchange.”
(b) Kids don’t always have to work in Costco or similar. Tell them to look at local small firms that do what they’re interested in doing. I interned for a local engineering firm last year of high school. An advertising firm that I consulted for hired college freshmen as paid interns.