[drewcoo]

> does it really make sense for someone to spend $100k (or $36k, for West Virginia residents) to learn puppetry?

No. School should be free.

> why not go apprentice yourself somewhere to learn that skill instead?

Because schools should help set those internships and apprenticeships up.

> puppetry by itself is pretty niche, and the point of liberal arts is to be more broad

You have that strangely inverted. Because liberal arts are so broad as to include the arts and because the arts are so broad as to include puppetry, the point of liberal arts is to offer niche studies like puppetry.