Free Public College

Polantaris, the barrier to everyone having a degree shouldn't be money. It should be ability.
Just because it's free doesn't necessarily mean everyone will have one. You'll have to qualify.
The government will have to get rid of those "schools" that are no more than sheepskin shops. Make a degree mean something.

(and btw, even today, while having any degree is better than none, the second round of sifting through resumes differentiates between a degree from a good school and a degree from an unknown school).

That's the problem. The government will have to get rid of the schools that are useless. Somehow I doubt they would be able to, or if they somehow pull that off keeping it that way. The government doesn't exactly have a stellar track record for being able to implement and maintain...well a lot of things.

My current scenario is actually exactly what Eos has mentioned, except add on no one gets fired unless you do something really stupid (like steal), so half the company is worthless and nothing gets done about it.