Obama spoke of post-high school education and/or job training, not just college and not four-year college degrees. He didn't say anything contrary to what you're talking about. You made some good points, but you ought to check into what he actually said rather than letting underscore's masters drive the debate like that.
And education is far less of a priority in this country than it was when I was a kid, especially public education and affordable public higher education. Tuition keeps going up at those schools because the percentage of public funding is dropping constantly. And California just happens to be a place which went from first to almost worst in the country in both performance and funding. That's not just coincidence. If you want those good teachers, you need to make the position economically desirable and the working environment safer and more conducive to learning as well as weeding out the less competent teachers. That takes money.
I also wonder why no one talks about throwing money at military issues not being the solution.