By cutting deals with a few institutions and offering mostly online programming, Walmart can keep prices way down. I suspect they do it this way because the equivalent value of the tuition reimbursement would be way too low for any of their low-level employees to actually afford the education.
At those rates, the expensive part is the time off work, even when you are only making $11/hr. (I mean, employer reimbursement is still a nice gesture, every little bit counts.)
I find it... unlikely that the private universities are cheaper than the community colleges.
Now, your last two years, at a state school, in California are closer to six or seven grand a year, full time, so half that for your half-time plan, and that's a much bigger bite, but I still kinda wonder what kind of private school could do cheaper, though we're getting more realistic.
In California, at least, if you go to any of our very good public schools, you will almost certainly be paying more just to keep yourself alive than you will be paying in tuition
(which isn't to say I don't think we should subsidize them more; I'm just saying that most of the cost of going to california public schools is... living in California.)
> Walmart will pay only for degrees in business and supply-chain management because those areas of study “will be relevant across the industry and for future work opportunities,” according to spokeswoman Erica Jones.
They also cover books and supplies, which I imagine would be way more expensive without a single standardized curriculum across all of their employees.
Really, the options for working adults are mostly geared towards the remedial. Community college is one of the few options available to someone like me to get back on the prestigious school track.