For a fairly controversial position on this MMM board, I'd argue that community schools, and (depending greatly on the schools in question) even state schools do not provide the same caliber of education as many top ranked (often private) colleges.
If you are interested in your child simply obtaining a degree to get a job, then many proposals here for community college followed by the local college will work fine for that goal. If you are interested in your child getting a top-notch education rather just a degree, then it's different question. And that's without considering the networking impact / that it's easier to get into top grad schools from top college, which is where you often get the better paying jobs. I'm not saying people who put a lot of effort in can't get a lot out of other schools, but I often feel that people equate one college education as the same as another, a position I think is wrong. (And before I get flamed, I would clarify I'm also not saying here that parents ought to fund all of the costs of the education.)
I did what a lot of people here propose - took all available AP classes and the community college courses offered through my high school. I even did early admission at a fairly good state school and took a few classes there while in high school. The quality of even those state school courses was not as strong as the private college I attended. Unfortunately, due to college requirements regarding how these courses could be treated/used (receiving "unspecified" subject credits that didn't apply towards minimum graduation requirements for that subject, for example), it was not much use in shortening my time at college. I've also taught college, so I've seen it from the other side of the fence as well.