LOL. You need better friends.
California has the best public college system in the country, from community colleges to the Cal States to the UCs. With books, it's about $7000/year to get an education via the Cal State system. The UC system doubles that. I don't think that's unreasonable in the slightest for the level of education you get, especially as an investment in your future. Unless my kids can get into a school with tons of financial aid like I did, I'm encouraging the UC system.
City University of NY Queens College, where I went, was like $5000 a year with books. I was able to pay that off with a part time job making $10 an hour and summers as a doorman. Most of the people complaining about college tuition are mad that they can't go to the big fun state schools that are $60k a year.
Granted, if you want to be on an associate track at a big investment bank, only the top notch expensive schools have internship programs that help, but I have people working alongside of me who went to NYU and Columbia. It's what you do after college that counts more than anything.