A university or college education was never meant to be primarily vocational. Universities exist, first and foremost, for the pursuit of knowledge. Second, universities are meant to help students learn to think critically and become better citizens. Further down on the list, and perhaps slightly less important, universities are also places where students learn specific skills that usually, but not always, help in a trade they will work in at a later time. (Example: I work in IT doing webby stuff, but my degree is in philosophy. I occasionally apply the logic I learned in philosophy to my trade.) Many people grow skeptical and bitter toward universities because they don't understand that universities are primarily places for active learning and research - not necessarily places where professors and instructors dump knowledge into your brain so that you can get a better job. Here is a mission statement from a liberal arts college in your home state:
"A liberal [arts] education at Illinois Wesleyan fosters creativity, critical thinking, effective communication, strength of character and a spirit of inquiry; it deepens the specialized knowledge of a discipline with a comprehensive world view. It affords the greatest possibilities for realizing individual potential while preparing students for democratic citizenship and life in a global society. "
If your primary intent is to send your daughter to a university so that she can learn a trade or so that she can earn a high salary, then you must weigh the cost of tuition against her potential earnings post graduation. It doesn't make sense, for example, to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on a college education if her only wish is to become a professional photographer, and she shows little interest in anything else.
I suspect, however, that you want your daughter to experience being a part of a community of active learners and engaged citizens. If this is the case, then start to explain as soon as she can understand, what a university education is, and how she can make the best of her time at a university.
Additionally, I disagree strongly with Dawn D. Non-profit colleges and universities are not businesses. Non-profit universities do not operate like businesses, and do not make profits. In fact, the full cost incurred by many state universities providing professors and classes for students (as opposed to research) is not covered by the cost of tuition (that is why state state universities are subsidized by state governments). Perhaps Dawn was thinking about for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix or trade schools like Le Cordon Bleu which have recently come under considerable criticism:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/business/14schools.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/opinion/11dehn.html
So, both you and your husband are correct. Your husband is right when he says that you can be successful and wealthy without a college degree. It is also the case that a college degree doesn't always lead to monetary wealth, and in some cases (especially if you attend a for-profit institution - read the articles above), can lead to a financial ruin. My husband and I understand fully that a university degree does not make one automatically wealthy (more commonly it makes one finanically comfortable). He has a Ph.D. and I have a bachelor's, and we are by no means even upper-middle-class because we both work for a university - hahaha! Of course, traditionally a university degree in the United States has made it possible for millions of Americans to lead a more solidly middle-class life than their parents led.
(As an aside, I like Suze Orman's advice for college savings and attendance: http://www.suzeorman.com/igsbase/igstemplate.cfm?SRC=MD01... She also advises potential students to not spend large amounts of money on a degree which may not pay much post-graduation.)
More interesting viewpoints:
http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200611/viewpoint.cfm
http://chronicle.com/article/Are-Too-Many-Students-Going-...
http://faculty.otterbein.edu/Amills/MillsCollegeEssay.htm...
http://politics.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/editors-note/201...